The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam
by Assassin's Creed Master
Summary: This an alternative story of The Walking Dead Game Season 2 Episode 1 of what would have happened if Sam did not attack Clementine, and how his role in the story would change everything.
1. Chapter 1: no hope

**The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam**

**Chapter 1: no hope**

**Alright, as you all know, I do have another Walking Dead story that is an alternative story. This story however, is different and has nothing to do with the other one.**

**Anyway, if you played Season 2 of The Walking Dead by Telltale Games, as you are aware, Sam attacks Clementine for the food that leads to a problem with the group thinking she was bit by a walker. Well, this story is going to be about what would have happened if Sam didn't bite Clementine and how the story would change?**

* * *

Clementine sat down on a small log as she finished eating the food contents out from the can she found. There was only a quarter left and she decided to give the rest to the dog she had just found named Sam according to his collar, and tipped the rest out in front of him.

Sam leaned down and eat up the remaining of the food, obviously hungry after what Clementine assumed could have been days, or even months.

While he was eating the remains of the food, Clementine crossed her arms together while she was thinking about what to do next...What would she do now...? Everyone she loved and cared for her were gone...Lee, Kenny, Katjaa, Duck, Carley, Christa, Omid, Ben...They were all gone.

Tears began to swell up in her eyes as she thought back to that day when she no longer was a child. The day she finally lost all hope for the World becoming normal again...The day she last her parents...And Lee.

* * *

_Clementine watched as Lee was struggling to keep his now yellow eyes open as he was on the verge of death. He only had one arm, and that one arm was cuffed to a radiator just in case he turned quicker than he thought._

_"You're strong, Clem. You...you can do anything." Lee assured her, wanting to make sure she stayed safe before his death which was coming very soon, and there was nothing she could do._

_"But...I'm little." Clementine reminded, thinking she would never make out there in this God for waken world on her own._

_"Doesn't mean nothin'. You're going to see bad stuff, but it's okay." Lee said, struggling to keep his eyes open._

_"My parents. It's so horrible." Clementine said with tears in her eyes._

_"I can't imagine, sweat pea." Lee said, not knowing what the young girl was feeling right now._

_"And now...you? PLEASE...please don't be one of them. Please don't become a walker." she begged, not wanting to loose the only person she had left now._

_"There's only one thing you can do. You know that." Lee said, struggling in his condition to say what he had to say next._

_"I don't know if I can." Clementine cried, grasping the gun she had just found close into her hands._

_He closed looked into her eyes for a second while she didn't know what to do next. "You have to shoot me honey."_

_"Lee, no..." she refused, shaking her head slightly._

_"It's okay, It's okay." Lee soothed, as he thought back to the day all of this began, the day he remembered that poor girl in the Motor Inn. "In Macon...the first days we met, do you remember?"_

_"Yeah, I do." Clementine nodded._

_"When I went out to rescue that boy Glenn, we met a girl. She'd been bitten, too. All she wanted was to not come back as a walker." Lee said, trying to keep it in simple terms of why she had to shoot him before it was too late._

_"Lee..."_

_"And I remember how hard it was to do that. But I'm glad I did." Lee continued, looking away from Clementine slightly. "You don't want to see me like one of them."_

_"Okay, Lee...I can do it. I can." Clementine said, deep down she was lying and didn't want to do this, but Lee was right. It had to be done._

_Lee nodded his head slightly but his work was not over yet. Even with a gun and skills, Lee knew Clementine had to be with someone safe, and there was only two people who Lee could trust to take care off her. "Find Omid...and...Christa. They're outside of town...by the train. You remember how to get back there?"_

_"Yes." she answered, not wanting to look at him._

_"Good." he smiled slightly. "They'll take good care of you."_

_Lee watched Clementine, who was now crying fully. This was hurting him too. Clementine was his family, she was like the daughter he ever wanted. "And Clem...Keep that hair short."_

_"I will. I'll cut if myself." Clementine agreed._

_"Great. Good...And also..." Lee was now too weak he was beginning to pass out from the infection. He wanted to say that he loved Clementine as one of his family, but what would be too painful for her to hear. _

_"What, what is it?" Clementine asked, wanting to know what he was going to say._

_"No, don't worry. All right..." Lee replied, his vision was now blurry and he could barely see her face anymore. He opened his eyes fully one last time and looked into her eyes. "I'll miss you."_

_"Me, too." Clementine said._

_Finally, Clementine knew it was time to fulfill Lee's request. She stood up and aimed the pistol directly towards Lee's head. She watched Lee's eyes finally close and his head fell to the side slightly._

_Clementine looked away from her guardian and while shaking, she pulled the trigger, shooting him directly in the brain. She was saddened by this completely, but she knew now that Lee would not come back as one, and he was in a better place now._

* * *

Ever since the day, Clementine lost whatever childlike innocence she had left. Those events had haunted her ever since, and that was over two years ago.

She began to cry and tucked her head in between her arms, not knowing what to do next now that Christa was gone, and presumed dead after those three bandits attacked her.

While she continued to cry, Clementine felt something nudge her arm slightly. She leaned her head up with tears still in her eyes where she saw Sam nudging her arms slightly like he was comforting her.

Clementine managed to raise a smile across her face as she began stroking Sam's head, and this time, he seemed calm and allowed her to pet him.

"I guess it's just me and you now, huh, boy?" Clementine said while Sam was licking her fingers slightly. "I don't know what to do now, maybe we can-"

Clementine was cut off by the sound of nearby footsteps. She gasped slightly as Sam was growling like he was being protective or her.

Two men suddenly emerged, each carry a weapon. One of them was a man who looked around in his middle twenties, he wore a orange shirt, blue jeans, and he had a machete in his hand. The other one was an older man who looked in his early fifties, he wore a green jacket, beige pants, and he had a crossbow in his hand.

"Holy shit!" the man with the orange shirt said, surprised to see Clementine. "I don't believe it. It's a kid."

"Been a while since I saw dog, too." the man with the green jacket said.

Clementine remained silent for a few seconds while he moved her hand near Sam's collar just in case his instincts took over. She looked at the two men, who stood where they were. "Look, I don't want any trouble."

"Neither do we, relax." the man with the jacket replied, setting his crossbow down to show he was not a danger to her. He knelt back up and introduced himself to the young girl. "My name's Pete, and this is Luke."

"I'm Clementine." Clementine introduced herself, releasing her grip slightly on Sam when he was calm enough not to growl at them anymore.

"What are you and your dog doing out here all on your own?" Luke asked, setting his machete down on the strap attached to his back.

"He's not my dog. I found him a few minutes ago." Clementine said, standing back up to full height now that Sam wasn't going to attack. "I got lost. From my friend...It's...It's...Just me."

Tears began to fill up in her eyes as she remembered once again that she as alone.

Pete and Luke watched her for a second, feeling sympathy for her. They both turned around for a moment to talk to each other privately.

"What do we do?" Luke asked, not sure on what to do with this girl they just found.

"Well, I ain't gonna leave her here." Pete said, turning around for a moment to look at Clementine, who was stroking Sam's head while drying the tears from her eyes. He turned back to Luke, discussing their next plan. "I say we take her with us."

"We can't." Luke argued, his expression turning nervous for a moment. "I mean, I want to, but what are the rest of the group gonna say? Especially Nick. You know what happened when-"

"You don't need to remind me of that, boy." Pete interrupted, acting like a father-figure towards the young man. "Besides, she isn't bitten. At least she doesn't look it."

"Right, sorry, sir." Luke apologized, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand. "But what about Carlos? You know how protective he is of Sarah."

"Look, Carlos is not in charge, we do things as a group." Pete said, crossing both of his arms together. "Come on, Luke, she's just a little girl. What's she gonna do, pull out gun and take us hostage?"

Luke sighed, knowing Pete was right as usual. He nodded slightly while looking towards the ground. "Alright, but what about the dog? He could be dangerous."

"Good point." Pete agreed, shifting his attention back to Clementine, who was waiting patiently for them to finish. "Clementine, is the dog dangerous?"

"No, he's not dangerous, honest." Clementine promised, stroking his head slightly.

"Hmm." Pete hummed, kneeling down to the dog's height in order to be sure of what she just said. He placed his hand slowly near the dog's head and stroked him for a few seconds, and was glad to see the dog was calm and allowed him to stroke her. "Well, he seems like a good dog."

"He is, I promise." Clementine said, wiping a couple of tears out from her eyes that remained there.

"Listen, Clementine, the rest of the group live in a cabin nearby. Would you like to come with us?" Pete offered, standing back up from where he was kneeling down. "You're welcome to come. You and the dog."

Clementine thought about it for a moment. She had to admit Luke and Pete seemed like nice people who were willing to help her, but then again, then St. John's seemed nice too, and she knows what they truly were.

She made up her mind after a couple more of seconds, and decided she would go, but however, Clementine had to know if it was okay. "Will the rest of your group be okay with it?"

"They'll just have to deal with it." Luke smiled before looking off into the woods where he spotted nearby walkers roaming around. "We better get going then. Let's go."

Clementine nodded, and the four left the area to head back to this cabin Luke and Pete spoke about. She kept the knife she found in her pocket just in case they weren't what they seemed, and she had to use a weapon to escape.

* * *

The three humans and the dog eventually made it to the cabin in the middle of nowhere. Pete gave Luke a little signal from his hand to stand by. "Listen, you all should wait out here. I'll go and let the group know what's happening."

"Alright, sir." Luke agreed, watching as Pete walked up the steps and walked inside the cab, disappearing out from their sights. After he was gone, Luke turned his attention back to Clementine and Sam, and knelt down to the dog's height and petted him for a few seconds. "It's been a long time since I saw a dog."

"Yeah, me, too." Clementine agreed, watching as Sam was calm enough to let Luke pet him. "So, how many of you are there?"

"Me, Pete, Pete's nephew Nick, Carlos and his daughter Sarah, and Alvin and his wife Rebecca." Luke answered, standing back up while he placed his hands in his pockets. "But, what about you? How did you end up here, if you don't mind me asking?"

Clementine sighed, remembering back to the events of last night, remembering how she lost the only friend she had left. "Me and my friend Christa were cooking a weasel, and we were attacked by these three men. One of them died, but I don't know what happened to the other two, or Christa."

"They attacked you for a weasel?" Luke said surprised, not believing what people would do nowadays just to survive. "That's cold."

"You can say that again." Clementine agreed, managing to raise a smile slightly. "I hope Christa's okay though. I miss her."

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Luke assured her, but deep down, he had the feeling she didn't make it and was laying out there dead somewhere, or worse, she was a walker.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the cabin, Pete was arguing with the rest of the group inside the cabin about Clementine. Alvin weren't sure what to do, Nick was not sure if she was dangerous or not, Carlos was willing to let her stay as long as she wasn't dangerous, as for Rebecca, she wanted her gone.

"What if she was bitten?" Nick said, arguing with his uncle about Clementine.

"She wasn't bitten. Me and Luke checked her on the way here, she's fine." Pete assured them while crossing his arms together, but they wasn't good enough for Rebecca. "What the hell's wrong with you, people!? She's just a little girl."

"She could be working for Carver!" Rebecca suggested, placing her hands around her pregnant belly. "Didn't you think about that?"

"Yeah, like Carver has a little girl working for him." Pete sarcastically replied, now getting slightly frustrated about why they were even arguing. "What would you have done? Left her to fend for herself?"

"But there's no way she survived out here on her own!" Nick said, obviously worried that she might have people looking for her as we speak. "Didn't you think about that?"

"Alright, then how about we ask her?" Pete suggested, turning towards the cabin window where he saw Clementine and Luke talking to each other while Sam was sitting on the ground with his tongue out.

"I agree." Carlos agreed, willing to give this girl a chance. "Bring her in, but the dog has to stay outside for now."

"Alright." Pete sighed, walking back towards the front door to fetch Clementine and Luke. He opened the door where both of them immediately looked towards him. "Guys! You two can come in, but the dog has to stay out here for now!"

"What?" Clementine asked, wondering why Sam wasn't allowed in the cabin. "You can't just leave him out here! What if a walker sees him?"

"Don't worry, we'll put him in the shed." Luke assured her, walking towards the shed to put Sam inside.

As much as Clementine didn't want to do this, she had to listen to them for now. She lead Sam inside the shed and ordered him to stay in there. "Sorry, boy, but you're gonna have to stay in here just for a while. Okay?"

Clementine petted his head for a couple of seconds before walking back outside of the shed and giving Luke the nod to close the doors. She was saddened by this but made her way inside of the cabin with Pete and Luke.

When she was inside, Clementine studied the cabin for moment. She had to admit it looked like a nice place, hardly untouched. She followed Pete and Luke in the kitchen where the rest of the group (except for Sarah) were waiting for her.

"Everyone, this is Clementine." Pete introduced her to the others, who were standing there like they had no emotions.

"I don't have time for this." Rebecca said, walking away from the kitchen back towards her bedroom.

"Rebecca." Alvin followed her, trying to bring her back into the kitchen but it was no use and they both ended up going into their bedroom together.

"Just ignore her, Clementine." Luke said, offering her a seat down at the kitchen table. "Have a seat."

Clementine sat down in the seat by the table as the rest of the group sat down on different chairs opposite of her. Luke, Pete, Nick, and Carlos all waited as they took their seats while watching her slightly.

"Alright, Clementine, if you're gonna stay, we wanna know what happened to you." Pete said, obviously being friendly to her, suspecting that Nick or Carlos might not be so kind towards her.

"From the beginning?" Clementine asked, getting a slight nod from Pete in return.

"Alright..." she took a deep breath, hoping that she could tell them her story without any tears filling up in her eyes again. "My parents went on vacation and left me with a babysitter before all this happened. My babysitter got attacked by one of them and I ran and hid in my tree house for a few days. One day, this man found me and rescued me from the tree house and my babysitter...His name was Lee...He promised to take care of me until we found my parents. We met up with another family named Kenny, Katjaa and Duck, and went to this drugstore where we met other survivors...One of us didn't make it though. The drugstore was attacked by walkers, and one of us, named Doug, died..."

"Damn, that's hard." Luke admitted, knowing how hard it was to lose someone. "Go on, Clementine."

She cleared her throat and continued. "Me, Lee, and the others decided to stay at this Motor Inn until all this cleared up. We were there for three months until we met these people who came by for gas. They seemed nice...but then we found out they eat people...They eat our friend Mark, and then put the rest of us in a meat locker. This old guy in our group named Larry had a heart attack, and we thought we could bring him back before he turned, but Kenny crushed his head with a salt lick."

"Damn. People ate your friend?" Pete said, shocked about what sick bastards were out there these days doing what they can just to survive.

"The rest of us escaped and let them live. We found this station wagon with supplies, but I told them I wanted nothing to do with it, and Lee agreed with me. My friend Carley gave me some batteries for my walkie-talkie, and then...Then I made a mistake..." Clementine continued, thinking back to when she first made contact with the stranger, and remembered the lies he told her.

"What did you do?" Carlos asked, now a little concerned when she mentioned she made a mistake.

"I talked to this man on my walkie-talkie. He claimed he had my parents in Savannah, and I believed him...I just missed them so much, and thought it was true...I was a fool. Our Motor Inn got attacked by bandits after my friend Ben tried to make a deal with them. We escaped, but the leader of our group, Lilly, shot Carley and we left her at the side of the road." Clementine said, closing her eyes in an attempt to hold back her tears. "We found this train and got it working and made our way to Savannah, but Duck was bitten, and his mom killed herself. And then Lee told me he had to put Duck out of his misery. We got to Savannah eventually after we met up with Omid and Christa, and while we were now, Lee found out about the man I had been talking about...He was a little angry..."

"He should be." Nick interrupted, before he got nudged slightly by his Uncle when he realized what he said. "Sorry, I didn't mean that."

"It's okay." Clementine accepted his apology before continuing her story. "Anyway, we stayed at this house for a while. I asked Lee if we could look for my parents, but he said we might not have time, so I got upset and tried to find the man I was speaking too...I found him, and then I found out he was lying and he locked me in room. Lee saved me and killed the stranger, but I found out he got bit. He cut off his arm, trying to stop himself from turning. We escaped, and I found my parents...As walkers. We got into this store, and Lee was dying...I...I...I had to shoot him to stop him from turning. Then after that, I met up with Omid and Christa, and found out we were the only one's left. Omid died a few months later, and then I was with Christa for more than a year. And that's when we got attacked by bandits, and that's when I met you two in the woods."

The men were silent for a couple of seconds, not really sure what to do next.

"Hmm, that's quite a story, Clementine." Pete admitted before shifting his attention back to Carlos. "So, what do you guys think?"

"I think she should be allowed to stay." Luke answered, agreeing with Pete one-hundred percent.

"Alright, I guess we can let her stay." Carlos agreed, standing up from where he was sitting and walking out from the room for a few moments to check up on his daughter to put her to sleep.

"...I suppose so, too." Nick said, him too leaving the room.

Before long, Pete left the room too to go and keep watch outside the cabin for any walkers. Luke left the room too, leaving Clementine to sit on her own for a while.

Clementine sat still for a while tapping the table with her fingers to pass the time. It was painful for her to tell her story to these strangers, but it did feel good to get out from her chest.

A couple of minutes later, Luke had returned with a bowl of food in his hand for their guest. He placed the bowl in front of Clementine and sat down on the other side of the table. "Here, I brought you some food, if you're hungry."

Although she had just met them, Clementine felt she could trust Luke and Pete, and despite the food she found earlier, she was still pretty hungry. Clementine picked up the spoon off the table and began to eat it's contents out from the bowl, finally eating a good meal.

Luke watched her as she continued to eat, showing he was concerned for this young girl he had met not too long ago. "So since you're pretty much on your own...What's your plan? Are you gonna stay?"

"I don't know." Clementine answered, shrugging slightly. "I'm kind of on my own now except for Sam."

"Well, you and your dog are welcome to stay here if you want." Luke offered. "Y'can let yourself heal up and take some time to sort things out."

"Do you think everyone else will be okay with it?" Clementine inquired, not wanting to outstay her welcome than she already needed.

"The group talked about it, and everyone-well, mostly everyone-said you are welcome to stay." Luke replied, smirking slightly across his face. "Besides, even if a couple of them disagree, they'll just have to deal with it."

"Thanks Luke." she thanked, finally managing to raise a smile across his face, happy to know there are people out there that still care for her.

"It's okay." Luke said, before his smile soon dropped when Carlos had returned into the same room after checking up on his daughter. He could tell by Carlos' face he was worried about something so Luke left the room, suspecting that he wanted to talk to Clementine alone.

After Luke was gone, Carlos began washing his hands in the nearby sink while Clementine continued to eat until he suddenly spoke. "Are you going to be a problem to my daughter?"

"Excuse me?" Clementine replied, wanting to make sure that she had just heard him correctly.

"I said, are you going to be a problem to my daughter?" Carlos repeated, his voice calm yet slightly serious while he continued to wash his hands in the sink.

"No, I won't." Clementine answered, arching a curious eyebrow, wanting to know why Carlos would think her, a little girl, would be a problem.

"Well, if you are going to stay, there are a few things you need to know about my daughter." Carlos answered, drying his hands with a towel while he stared outside of the window.

"Okay." Clementine slightly nodded, knowing this man was only being protective of his daughter, just like how Lee was looking out for her, how Kenny was looking out for Duck, and how Larry was looking out for Lilly.

"She isn't like you. You may not get that initially, but once you're around her for a while you'll understand." Carlos explained, crossing his arms together while looking out of the kitchen window before closing his eyes. imagining what would happen if Sarah was too know what it was like out there. "If she knew how bad the world is... what it's really like out there... she would...cease to function. She's my little girl. She's all I have left and I would ask that you please not tell her about what it's like out there."

"I won't, I promise." Clementine promised, giving a slight nod to him, despite him being turned around from her view.

"Thank you. I appreciate that." Carlos replied, trusting Clementine to be around his daughter now that she had her promise. "You can stay in her room with her tonight. It's the first room on your right when you go upstairs."

"Thank you." Clementine thanked as Carlos finally left the room at the same moment Pete had returned too.

"I had to interrupt, but I think it's time we all got some sleep because this place is lit up like a goddamn beacon in the middle of the woods." Pete told Clementine. "Get your winks while you can 'cause we're goin' fishing at first light. A couple of fresh brookies for dinner? Mm, wouldn't that be nice. As for your dog, he's gonna have to stay in the shed just for tonight."

Clementine was about to protest but respected the older man's wishes and decided that was for the best. "Alright, I understand. As long as he's gonna be okay."

"He will be, don't worry." Pete assured her, walking back out from the room, ready to tuck in for the night.

Before long, Clementine finally finished the food and made her way upstairs to Sarah's bedroom where Carlos had said it was. Clementine got to the top of the stairs and went in front of the door and knocked a couple of times.

_"Come in."_ the voice inside the room said.

Clementine entered the bedroom room where a young girl around the age of fifteen was laying on her bed, reading a book in her hands. The girl had the same skin color as Carlos, she wore glasses, a grey jacket and blue jeans.

"Hi." Clementine greeted, closing the door behind her. "Your dad told me I could sleep in her for tonight."

"Yeah, he told me." the girl replied, gesturing her hand towards the floor where a sleeping bag with a couple of pillows laid down against the floor at the end of her bed.

"Thanks." Clementine said before observing the book in the girl's hands, not expecting to see people still reading. "What are you reading?"

"A book." the girl answered like it was obvious.

"What book? I like books." Clementine admitted.

"It's called the Guurgles." the girl replied, setting her book down with the pages still open to speak to the young girl standing in front of her. "It's about trans-dimensional body snatchers."

"...Cool." Clementine simply replied, not really knowing how to respond.

"I'm Sarah." the girl introduced herself, standing up from her bed, revealing herself to be quite taller than Clementine.

"I'm Clementine." Clementine introduced herself too, deep down, she was a little happy to finally meet someone not too far from her age.

"We're friends. Right?" Sarah asked, obviously wanting to befriend another girl her age. "We can be best friends-I haven't met another girl my age since way before. It's hard to be the only girl, you know? Rebecca is okay, but she's old. And that's it. And if the baby's a girl then it'll be FOREVER because she's old enough to, like, be my friend. And then I'll be super old."

Despite Clementine feeling a little uncomfortable by Sarah's childlike behavior, she made a promise to Carlos, and that was a promise she intended to keep. "Yes, we're friends."

"Promise?" Sarah asked. "It's important. Friend's have to trust each other no matter what. Do you promise or not?"

"I promise." Clementine answered.

"Me too. Friends." Sarah smiled, holding out her pinky finger on her right hand for her and Clementine to pinky swear. She watched as Clementine accepted her pinky swear and that gave her a little hope. "A pinky swear is forever."

"Yeah, I know." Clementine smiled, ending the pinky shake.

Before long, Clementine finally decided to get some sleep after the long day she had. She tucked herself into the sleeping bag and finally got a goodnight's sleep, happy that she was with people she could trust.

* * *

**And chapter is complete, ladies and gentleman. Chapter 2 will be here as soon as possible, but after I publish that one, I won't be updating this story until Episode 2 is released. Stay tuned.**


	2. Chapter 2: déjà vu

**The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam**

**Chapter 2: déjà vu**

**Sorry this chapter took a really long time to publish. I have been busy with college, trying to earn a job, trying to prepare for driving tests and so on. But I did play "A house divided", and truth be told, I was shocked Kenny had survived. Anyway, as usual, I have talked too much. Enjoy the chapter, folks.**

* * *

The next morning, Clementine, Sam, and her new friend Pete were all walking down to the river stream where Pete claimed he had set up fish traps, and wanted to go and see if he caught some for breakfast. Nick had also agreed to come along, but at the moment, he stopped to take a piss while the others continued.

Clementine only tagged along because she wanted to prove to the group she can be useful despite her age, and she only brought Sam for exercise, and Clementine thought he could be useful with his senses.

While they were walking, Clementine picked up the pace a little to catch up with Pete as they continued walking. "So, how far are these fish traps of yours?" she asked, trying to make conversation between them.

"It ain't much further." Pete answered, looking towards Clementine, who was looking at his rifle with curiosity. "Hey, I'm just wondering, did anyone ever teach you how to shoot?"

"My friend Lee taught me." Clementine answered. "But only a pistol. We never got the chance to use a rifle."

"Well, that is a good thing I suppose." Pete replied, turning sideways to walk through a gap between a barb wire fences. "With your size, this rifle would properly knock you on your ass."

Clementine followed him through the gap, but it was much easier for her to get through due to her size or course. She did have to admit, being a little girl still had its advantages. Sam followed her through the gap, too, easily getting through.

"You told me you were eleven, right?" Pete inquired, getting a slight nod from Clementine in a reply while they continued walking through the forest. "I think Nick was around your age the first time I took him hunting. We came across this beautiful thirteen-point buck just standing there."

Pete paused for a second as he stopped in his tracks and aimed the rifle in a random direction. "The boy takes the rifle...He lines up the shot just like I taught him. He was about to shoot, but then I heard him start whining. He looks at me and says "I can't do it. I can't shoot it, Uncle Pete. Please don't make me shoot it"."

"Awww, that's sad." Clementine admitted, feeling somewhat sympathy for Nick.

"Hey!"

Clementine and Pete turned back towards the direction they came from where Nick came running towards them to catch up with the same rifle as his uncle held in his hands. "How come you didn't wait for me?"

"You want us standing around while you piss on a tree? You know where the river is, boy." Pete answered, acting like a father figure to his nephew as he was turning back towards the river stream while continuing his story to Clementine. "Anyway, so I go to grab the gun out of hand before the buck gets away when BANG! The gun fires, they boy nearly gun shot me. And of course the buck got away."

Nick knew full fact that his uncle was talking about him, and that little incident that happened when he was kid. He did not like to be embarrassed like this so he spoke up, interrupting Pete's story. "Why are you going and telling her this shit for?"

"Why not?" Pete inquired, stopping in his tracks yet again as he looked towards Nick. "Just passing the time with bit of a story. Seems normal to me."

"Why are you always giving me a hard time?" Nick inquired, always feeling like his Uncle always tried to hurt him in any way possible.

"Because you always giving everyone else a hard time." Pete quickly responded, glaring towards his nephew as he shoved past him, cutting in front of them both. "Leaving us again, are ya?"

"I know where the fucking river is!" Nick replied, not bothering to even look back at them as he stormed away.

Pete had to admit he was getting kind of annoyed with Nick's childish behaviour, but he shrugged it off for now as he, Clementine and Sam continued their walk towards the river. "Anyway, I found that same buck a little while later and brought it back home to eat. Nick didn't speak to me for weeks."

"Why is Nick always angry?" Clementine inquired, suspecting Nick had a short temper like Kenny did.

"Nick's father wasn't around much, and even when he was, he was a complete asshole." Pete answered. "So I thought it was best that I bring the boy up right, and I couldn't just be nice Uncle Pete."

"Uncle Pete!"

Pete jumped slightly at the sound of his nephew calling him, and made haste to his location with Clementine and Sam running by his sides. He got to Nick at the river, and what they saw next shocked them completely.

A bunch of corpses were scattered across the entire area with bullet holes shot in them, and blood smeared across the ground.

"Holy shit!" Nick gasped, shocked about what he was even seeing.

"You think Carver could have done this?" Pete asked Nick, suspecting there was only one person who was capable of doing something like this.

"Who's Carver?" Clementine inquired, staring towards the taller men, who both remained silent as they looked around the area, and did not answer her question.

Pete took Sam with him to the other side of the river to investigate further. He stopped in the middle area for a moment where Nick was calling him back.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" Nick inquired, clutching his rifle tightly as he scanned the area for walkers or whoever did this may still be around. "We got to get out of here. I don't like this, they might come back."

"Nick, when are you going to learn the honest truth?" Pete inquired, turning in the direction towards his nephew.

"What, that you're an asshole?" Nick asked.

"That no-one's going to give a damn whenever you like something or not. You got to grow up, son." Pete answered, looking down where Clementine had joined him in the center part of the river. "Clementine, mind if I take Sam to go and look around over there for a couple of minutes?"

"Sure." Clementine replied, kneeling down to Sam where she stroked his head a couple of times. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah, search those corpses for any ammo or anything useful." Pete ordered, looking over his shoulder for a moment where one of the walkers was alive with a spear impaled in his stomach. "Be careful though. Some of them are not dead-dead, if you know what I mean."

"Got it." Clementine assured, nodding her head slightly.

"You always this helpful?" Pete inquired.

"Not all the time." Clementine answered, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

"Alright then, Clementine." Pete replied, walking towards the other side of the river front with Sam walking beside him, sniffing out for anything useful.

Now that she was on her own for a moment, Clementine began observing the small area she was on where there was a couple of corpse over there too, and to make matters worse, one of them was still alive.

Despite not knowing who this person was, Clementine thought it was best if she were to put this walker out of its misery. She carefully it's corpse before she pulled out the knife she had found to open up that can.

Carefully walking towards the walker, Clementine moved back for a moment when the walker attempted to reach out and bite her for a free tasty meal, but he could not get up due to him being held down by the spear impaled in him.

Without hesitation, Clementine stabbed the knife directly into the walker's brain, killing him instantly and finally putting it out from its misery. She stood back up and brushed the knife out against her pants to get the blood off.

After he was taken care of, Clementine looked in another direction where she spotted something familiar next to one of the corpses. To confirm this, she approached the corpse and walked around him where she spotted her backpack was there! How on Earth did it get here?

Kneeling down to check everything was still there, Clementine gasped when she saw the corpse was still alive. She was even more surprised when she remembered this dying man was one of the three bandits that attacked her and Christa the night before.

"That's my backpack." Clementine said to him, not fully sure if he could understand here or not. "The woman you attacked. Where is she? Please...Tell me."

The man could not get his words out fully, but managed to point his finger to her backpack where a water bottle could be seen hanging out of her backpack. She hesitated for moment, but this may be her chance to find Christa, so she pulled out the water bottle and poured some water into his mouth where he struggled to swallow.

"Th...Thank you." he thanked, closing his eyes as his head collapsed to the ground.

Clementine was about to ask the same question for a second time until a bark, followed by a gunshot rang through the entire area, and then ended with Pete yelling. "AHH!"

Clementine jumped up where she saw Pete had just shot a walker-that could only crawl-directly in the head. He panted a couple of times while Sam continued to bark for a few seconds.

"Uncle Pete!" Nick shouted, about to run over to his Uncle to assist him.

"I'm fine! Fucker almost got me!" Pete assured, finding himself to be lucky that the walker did not have the chance to bite him. "If it weren't for Sam warning me, it might have gotten me."

Nick sighed in relief, grateful that the only member of his family was still alive. The grateful moment soon was ruined when he heard growling and snarling nearby. He swiftly turned around where walkers were approaching him on both sides. "Lurkers!"

Pete was about to assist him until he too had walkers coming on both of his sides, but lucky for him, they were quite far still. He raised his rifle to fire at the nearest one, but when pulling the trigger, the gun only responded by a click. "Dammit. I'm out of ammo!"

"Come this way!" Nick ordered, shouting more walkers from both sides. "I got ammo!"

"Dammit, get your asses over here, now! Both of you!" Pete ordered.

Clementine could only watch as both men called each other over. Who would she go to? Pete was out of ammo and needed help, and he was with Sam, too, but Nick had ammo, and he was on his own.

She looked towards both sides for a few seconds, struggling to pick who to assist in this moment of time. If Clementine did not pick one of them soon, both of them would be killed. Now she knew how Lee felt when he had to pick Carley or Doug when both of them were in trouble. It was like déjà vu.

Without thinking, Clementine ran towards Pete as fast as her legs would carry her.

"Come on! Come on!" Pete called out, waving his left hand in the air to signal both Clementine and Nick. He panicked when a walker had pushed him down against a rock. "Jesus!"

Clementine finally got towards Pete, who was holding the walker back by grabbing both its wrists and holding it back by placing his leg against its stomach.

Sam attempted to help Pete by biting the walker's leg and trying to pull it back away from it. The dog growled as he pulled as hard as he could while sinking his teeth in further.

Clementine spotted a broken piece of wood nearby that looked helpful, and it was the only thing she could think off. She grabbed the piece of wood and ran back towards Pete as she began whacking the piece of wood against the walker's wrist, desperate trying to help out.

Eventfully, Clementine whacked its wrist hard enough that it snapped off completely, and this gave Pete the strength and chance to push it back.

Pete stood back up and began running back towards Nick with Clementine and Sam by his side. He called out to Nick, who was fighting off walkers using his rifle as a melee weapon. "Nick! Hold on! NICK!"

Nick stood still for a moment when he tried to figure out what to do next. He knew his rifle was out of ammo, and there was no way to get back to Pete and Clementine. His last option was to turn around and run.

"God dammit! Nick!" Pete called out to him, but his nephew had ran out from plain sight.

"We have to go!" Clementine said, grabbing Sam's collar as they both began to run away from the walkers. "Let's go!"

Pete hesitated for a moment, not wanting to leave Nick alone, but he followed suite and ran with the young girl and her dog into the middle of the woods, desperate to outrun the walkers and get back to the cabin.

* * *

**Chapter 2 has been completed my fellow readers of FanFiction. As you can see, Pete was never bitten on this chapter because Sam managed to warn him about the walker. But will they find Nick and get back to the cabin in one piece? Find out in chapter 3: a visitor.**


	3. Chapter 3: back at the cabin

**The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam**

**Chapter 3: back to the cabin**

**Sorry this took so long to update. I got the usually reasons for not updating. But I may be updating more often than I did before. Hopefully, anyway. But here's the next chapter of my story, and hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

Clementine, Pete, and Sam tried to keep quiet for as long as they could as walkers could be heard banging against the door. After they were separated from Nick near the lake, the three were forced to run away and were now hiding in a cigarette truck in an attempt to avoid the pursuing walkers.

Pete grunted as he and Clementine locked the door hard enough to make sure it could not been opened at all. Sure, the van was made out from hard steel, but after all, there was nothing wrong with being extra careful.

"That ought to do it." he declared, leaning his back against the inside of the truck wall, panting a couple of times. "Jesus, Nick..."

"What are we going to do?" Clementine inquired, sitting down on the opposite side of Pete with Sam sitting down beside her.

"Not sure." Pete replied, scanning the inside of the truck for anything useful. "I'm just worried about Nick. He's out there somewhere."

"He got away. I'm sure he knows his way back to the cabin." Clementine reassured him, placing her hand against Sam's head, stroking him slightly.

"Maybe, I don't know. God-dammit, Nick." Pete mumbled quietly to himself, nodding his head side-to-side in mid-sentence. "Couldn't just listen to me, could he? If he did, we'd all be in the back of this truck now."

"I'm sure he's fine." Clementine replied, standing up so she could go and investigate the truck they were in for anything useful, knowing they may be in here for a while. "I'm going to have a look around."

"Sure." Pete said, not seeming too bothered about what she was doing. He was too sad that he may not see his nephew again. Sure, his nephew may be a fucking idiot, but the point is, he was his idiot to take care of.

After Nick's mother had passed on, Pete made a vow to her that he would protect Nick and be with him no matter what. Pete was so close to death earlier. If it had not been for Sam alerting him to the walker on the ground, he may have been bit, and once you are bit, it's all over.

Pete dazed out from his thoughts as he eyed the bag that Clementine had set down opposite of him. He sure did not remember her having a bag this morning when they set out. "Clementine, where did you get this bag?"

Clementine leaned up from where she was kneeling down; searching for supplies or anything that could be useful. "One of the corpses at the river was still alive. He was one of the people who attacked me and my friend Christa. He was alive, and had my bag with him. I tried to get him to tell me where Christa was, but that's when...You know."

"Right." Pete sighed, turning his attention back to the doors when he could hear the walkers banging as hard as they could on the outside. "Bastards ain't lettin' up."

"You think they will get in?" Clementine inquired, suspecting they would have nowhere to go if the walkers managed to get the doors

"Not sure. Doubt it, though." Pete admitted, trying to get himself comfortable after he suspected they were going to be here for a while. "Better get comfy, Clementine. Looks like we're going to be in here for a while."

Clementine did not like this idea he was suggestion, and folded her arms together as Pete laid down against the cold metal ground, resting his head in his right arm. "That's it? We just going to sit here?"

"Would you rather go out there?" Pete inquired, shutting his eyes as he tried to get some sleep, but found it was going to be difficult since the walkers were still trying to get inside.

"Point taken." she replied, sitting herself on the opposite side of Pete, leaning her back against the wall. She picked her backpack and searched inside to see if the bandits had taken anything out of there.

Clementine sighed in relief as she pulled out the most important thing out from the backpack which was a picture of Lee she had grabbed during the time they were at his parent's drugstore. She sighed, trying to hold back tears as the memory of her shooting her only friend left in the world haunted her.

Ever since she was saved by Lee before he died, Clementine felt it was her fault Lee had died. If she had not gone to try and find the stranger, then maybe...Just maybe he might have survived. What was she thinking? Her parents were never going to be okay no matter how fast they go to Savannah.

As she young girl looked at the photo, she felt something lay it's self against her lap. She set the photo back into her backpack where she could see Sam, cuddling her head into her sleep.

Clementine smiled as she placed her hand on Sam's head and began to stroke, and this time, he seemed to enjoy it. It was like he was a whole new dog. "You saved a life today, boy. If you hadn't alert Pete, he might have got bit."

Sam merely yawned in response as he closed his eyes and attempted to drift off to sleep. He was more than happy to use the young girl's leg as a pillow to lie on, despite the fact he had no met her not too long ago, and considered her to be an enemy.

Before long, Clementine felt herself getting tired, too, and could no longer keep her eyes open for long. She drifted off to sleep in a matter of seconds, despite the many walkers banging against the truck door outside.

* * *

"Clem...Clem...Clementine!"

Clementine mumbled as she lazily opened her eyes at the sounds of Pete's voice calling her. She rubbed her eyes for a moment as she sat up, at the same time, wondering what he wanted from her.

After she was done rubbing her eyes, Clementine could see out from the truck window that it was now night time, and to top it off, the walkers had stopped banging against the truck doors, meaning either they given up, or just forgot they were in there.

Clementine picked her backpack and placed it over her shoulders while she could see Pete and Sam standing by the truck doors. "What are you doing?"

"They're clearing out. If we're quick, we might be able to run out of here." Pete explained, peaking the truck doors open just a tiny bit so he could see what was happening. "I know the way back to the cabin...Let's just hope we can make it. You quick on your feet."

"Sometimes." Clementine shrugged, standing beside him while Sam began growling silently under his breath, obviously sensing the danger ahead.

"Well, as soon as I give the word, we make a break for it!" Pete suggested, clutching his rifle in his right hand that was out of ammo of course, but could be pretty useful for a melee weapon. "Okay...Three...Two...One...Go!"

In a split-second, Clementine and Pete burst open the doors and ran directly through any openings they could see that were not close to any walkers. Clementine kept constantly looking to her side to make sure Sam was still with them, and trying to do anything stupid like attack them.

Clementine turned her attention forward where she completely missed the walker standing right ahead of her. She gasped as she ended up falling down onto her back, and in an act to defend herself; she placed her leg against the walker's stomach.

Obviously, she was just a little girl, and holding back the walker with her own strength was going to be a difficult task. As she felt her leg weaken, the walker was suddenly knocked directly in his head, killing it upon impact.

Clementine gasped as she looked towards her savior, who was indeed Pete. She noticed her was holding out his hand to her, and without hesitation, she accepted it before running back towards the direction Pete was running.

Lucky for them, walkers did not know how to run that quick. In fact, they did not run at all, and merely walked instead. As long as they could stay out of sight, Clementine, Pete, and Sam may stand a chance as long as they kept running.

* * *

Eventfully, sunrise had emerged, sending an orange color across the entire sky. Down below in the woods, the three had been running for at least half hour, and were on the verge of passing out. But the good news was they finally made it back to the cabin, and lost the walkers that were pursing them.

Clementine was the first to arrive since Pete was quite old and could not move as fast as he use to. She burst open into the kitchen door, panting as she struggled to catch her breath. Pete and Sam followed suit, and Pete closed the door behind them before collapsing onto a kitchen chair.

Inside the kitchen were Carlos and Rebecca who had ran over to them as soon as they entered, worried expressions on their faces.

"Clementine, Pete!" Carlos said, happy and worried at the same that they had returned after so many hours. "What happened?! Where's Nick?"

"We got attack, at the river." Pete answered, struggling to catch his breath back since he was not much of an athlete. "Clementine, Sam, and I made a run for it."

"We lost Nick." Clementine added, watching as Sam had collapsed onto his stomach, not looking to well. She knelt down to him and shook him slightly. "Sam...Sam! Are you okay?"

"Where's everyone else?" Pete inquired, only just realizing it was the two of them there.

"Luke and Alvin went looking for you both!" Rebecca quickly answered, shifting towards Carlos, who had checked on Sam to check if he was okay or not. "What are you doing? We need to find them!"

"Rebecca, wait a second!" Carlos requested, placing two of his fingers against Sam's neck to check if he was alright. "He's fine. Just needs some water."

"Carlos, we need to go and find them! My husband is out there!" Rebecca reminded, extremely worried for her husband as he was out there with Luke, looking for basically nothing now that they were back. "GET the GUNS!"

Carlos nodded in agreement as he ran out of the next room for a moment to go and fetch the weapons.

As he left, Rebecca returned her attention to Clementine, who was attending to Sam. "Luke and Alvin went out looking for you all. I told them not to go! Dammit Luke!"

Seconds later, Carlos had returned with a rifle for Rebecca, some ammo for Pete, and a Glock 17 for himself. He handed each of the weapons to them both, and with hesitation, they all set out for a better chance of finding their friends.

Before Carlos left, he had a favor to ask for Clementine, an important one. "Clementine... Can you please watch Sarah? She's upstairs, just distract her."

"I will. You can count on me." Clementine assured him, raising a slight smile across her face as she gave him a slight nod.

"Thank you." Carlos thanked, but deep down, he was hoping he did not make a mistake of trusting his daughter's life with the young girl. "We'll be back soon. Just stay inside, and don't open the doors for anything!"

Clementine watched as Carlos finally left to join the others, followed by closing the door behind him. She turned her attention back to Sam as soon as he was one, and realized he needed to have something to drink.

Running to the sink, Clementine found a cereal bowl that she filled with cold water and gave it Sam. She set the bowl down in front of him, but noticed he was too weak to even lift his head up to take a sip yet.

"You'll be okay, boy." Clementine assured him, stroking his head for a moment until she remembered she had to keep her promise to Carlos, and take care of Sarah until they returned. "I'll be back soon, boy. Just stay here."

Clementine left the kitchen a moment later and made her way to the upstairs area of the cabin. She arrived to Sarah's bedroom, and without knocking, she opened the door, and was startled by a sudden bright flash light.

She watched as Sarah printed out the photo from the camera she had used to take a picture of Clementine. "Look at all this cool stuff I found under the house. Cool, right?"

Clementine did not reply as she eyed the picture in Sarah's hand.

"Take one of me!" Sarah requested, offering the camera over to Clementine, who hesitated for a moment, thinking this was somewhat childish of her. "Please?"

"Sure." Clementine agreed, taking off her backpack for a moment before she accepted the camera from the older girl.

"Get me on a good pose, okay?" Sarah requested, standing still so Clementine to take a picture of her. However, just as Clementine had taken the picture, she noticed a worried expression on her face. "What's wrong, Clem? Where's my dad?"

Clementine was not sure how she was going to reply exactly, not wanting to lie to her, but at the same time, not wanting to break her promise to Carlos. Instead, she just said the first thing that popped in her mind. "He'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Sarah inquired, but did not get an answer for her new friend, who stood there. She decided to drop it for now and walked to the other side of her room to show Clementine more of the things she had found under the cabin. However, she felt herself struggling to breathe for a moment. "Sorry...I just need...To."

Clementine watched as Sarah had to sit down for a moment with her arms around her legs, not knowing what was wrong with her exactly. She sat down on the opposite side of her to keep her company, and hopefully, she would not ask any questions regarding her father.

The two sat silent for a moment, staring at each other as they smiled.

"Want to see what I found?" Sarah broken the silence as she stood up for a moment to fetch something from under the table. "Will you show me how to use it?

Clementine's eyes widened silently as she eyed the Glock 17 in Sarah's hand. "You should let your dad teach you." she suggested, but her expression soon changed into a feared one as Sarah had aimed the gun at her. "Don't do that!"

"So...Sorry!...Sorry..." Sarah apologized, stuttering in mid-sentence. She calmed herself down shortly after while making her way towards the window.

Sarah looked around the area outside of her bedroom window to see if there was anything useful outside that would help her target practice. "Maybe I could practice outside? There's that tree...Hey, Luke's back!"

Clementine walked to the window beside her and only was able to see the figure's shadow before he disappeared. She turned around and followed Sarah downstairs to go and greet Luke. But something was on her mind: if this was Luke, then why was he alone? Wasn't he supposed to be with Alvin?

After she made her way downstairs, Clementine checked a couple of windows to see if it was Luke, but found nothing so far. She walked over to Sarah, who was waiting near the front door, and by the look on her face, she looked worried.

Sarah stood still as her friend approached her after checking all of the windows. She gulped after she realized the figure was not who he seemed to be. "That's not Luke."

The two looked around the corner for a second where the figure was waiting by the front door. Either he was going to just walk in, or maybe he would knock first like a civilized person.

Sarah was beginning to panic slightly as she somewhat recognized the figure standing by the door. "Clem, I think I know him."

* * *

**Well, would you look at that? Pete has survived, and actually managed to make it back to the cabin without getting bit. I hope you will all wait until "Chapter 4: a visitor".**


	4. Chapter 4: a visitor

**The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam**

**Chapter 4: a ****visitor**

**Here I bring you the next chapter of my story. A couple of you asked me in messaging will I be making a sequel to my last story "Only trying to do the right thing". And the answer: yes, I will. But not until I finish this one first. Could be a while yet, but nevertheless, here is the next chapter. I hope all of you enjoy it. :D**

* * *

The door knocked from the outside of the cabin, startling the two girls slightly. Whoever he was, obviously wanted to get inside. To Clementine, this was strange since she expected it was just some random guy poking around, but as for Sarah, she knew one-hundred percent who this man was.

"He can't see me." Sarah replied, standing behind the wall to avoid being seen by the stranger outside. "You have to make him go away."

Clementine arched a curios eyebrow for a moment to why Sarah was so desperate to get away and fearful from this stranger who she seemed to recognize, but nevertheless, she agreed to help her new best friend. "Go and find somewhere to hide."

"Where?!" Sarah inquired, scanning the room they were in, looking for a hiding place.

"Hello...?!" the stranger called out, looking through the window on the door.

Sarah now panicked even more as she was one-hundred percent sure this was the same men she met long ago. She would never forget that voice in a million years. She struggled to breathe for a moment as fear was sent tingling down her spin. "Clem, I can't breathe...I can't breathe..!"

"Shhhh." Clementine shushed her, placing a finger to her lips. She then quietly began making her way towards the front door, hoping there was a way to get rid of him without any trouble.

Truth be told, Clementine wished she brought that Glock 17 that Sarah had found with her to use. It may be empty of course, but the man outside did not know that. The man outside called out a second time to see if anyone was inside, and by the looks of it, he did not seem to be leaving soon.

Clementine looked towards the lock on the front door that may be her only hope of keeping the man outside. She reached out her left hand to lock the door, but she was a second too late as the door had opened.

The young took a step back as she eyed the man who opened the door on his own and stood there, smiling at her. He had longish black hair, a black moustache like Carlos', and looked around in his middle forties. He wore a brown coat with a row of fur against the hood. "Hello there." he greeted.

"Hello." Clementine greeted in return, not exactly knowing what to say to him since she had no other options at this point.

"How are ya?" the stranger inquired, seeming friendly at the moment, but people can be surprised of what people are truly like in the inside.

"Okay." Clementine answered. "How are you?"

"Well I'm doing just fine, thank you." the stranger replied smiling, turning to his right slightly and gesturing his right arm back towards the way he came. "My family and I are set up a ways down river. I'm kinda surprised we haven't run into each other."

While he was talking, Clementine took no notice to what he was saying and looked towards his right hip where she could see he was carrying Colt Python in a gun holster attached to his belt, and this left her eyes widened slightly. Now he seemed dangerous, but then again, what person did not own a gun these days? Especially in this day and age.

"What's your name?" the stranger inquired, still talking in a friendly matter.

Clementine was about to answer, but revealing her name to him may not be a good idea. After all, he could have been working with the bandits who attacked her and Christa, and if Christa was alive, they may have forced her to tell them what her name was.

Rather than answering her real name, Clementine thought back to the one person who was almost closer to her than Lee: Carley, the former reporter who was killed in cold blood by Lilly during their escape from the Motor Inn. "I'm...Carley."

"Carley. That's a sweet name." the stranger admitted before he looked at her with a change of expression from a friendly one to a curious one. He stepped closer towards as he walked inside the cabin without even asking. "You mind if I come in, Carley? I've been out all morning and this heat has got me cooked."

Sarah, who was watching the entire conversation from where she was hiding, quickly departed when the man had taken a couple of steps inside.

"No, I guess not." Clementine assured, but deep down, she was only letting him inside in fear of getting him angry might provoke him to pull out his weapon, and that would not end well.

The stranger raised his smile again as he studied the inside of the cabin. He seemed to admire it, and he seemed to be interested in the fish that was hung on the wall. "This is a nice place? Is there anyone else around? You don't usually see cabins this big out here. You sure could pack a lot of folks in here."

"Just me, my dad, and my dog." Clementine answered, crossing her arms together.

"Really? Been a while since I saw a dog." the stranger admitted, dropping his smile again as he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I'll cut to the chase; I'm out looking for my people." he said, walking past Clementine into the next room. "Seven of them to be exact. They're been gone a long while and...I'm worried they might've gotten lost. Maybe you've seen 'em."

"Couple of farm boys and an old man...Spanish guy and his daughter. Quiet girl, bit taller than you. A big black guy. This big." he paused as he gestured out his arms a couple of feet in front of his stomach. "And a pretty little pregnant lady."

Clementine gasped silently under her breath as she knew full fact he was talking about everyone in the group. The farm boys were Luke and Nick, the old man was Pete, the Spanish guy was Carlos and his daughter was Sarah, the big black guy was Alvin, and the pretty little pregnant lady was Rebecca.

Could he be one of the people who was with the man called "Carver" that had been mentioned a few times from members of the cabin. Or worse, could this even be Carver himself? This was bad. Any moment now, the others could return to the cabin, and to top it off, what if Sarah accidently exposes her to him?

"That's a lot of people to lose." Clementine admitted, not sure what to say exactly.

"Tell me about it." the stranger agreed. "This whole damn thing's a pain in the ass." he looked to both of his sides for a moment before walking towards the kitchen, peaking through the doors before going inside.

Clementine followed him inside and gasped slightly where she could see the stranger kneeling down to Sam, who was resting on the ground, lying on his side. It was a good thing he was asleep as Clementine knew he can be dangerous around new people.

"This is your dog? He seems tired." the stranger admitted, standing back up to full height.

"Yeah, took him out for a jog this morning." Clementine replied, walking over towards the sleeping dog while the stranger observed the dirty dishes in the sink.

"Well, looks like a damn tornado ran through here." he admitted, seeing how many dirty plates were scattered around the kitchen. "Quite a few dishes, isn't there for just you and your dad?"

"What can I say?" Clementine replied, leaning herself against the kitchen counter to act casual.

"Just passing' through, or you been here a while?" the stranger inquired, him too leaning against a kitchen counter. "Hey, listen kid. I hope you're not one of those nuts headed up north, looking' for Shangri-La. Now, I'm not sure why you'd go anywhere after finding' this place. "Hell, I just got here and I don't wanna leave."

While he was talking, Clementine looked towards the edge of kitchen counter near the backdoor where she could see a knife resting there. It looked sharp, and big enough to stab into someone. It may be her only hope, but getting to it was going to be a problem.

"Just passing through. Going north." Clementine lied, thinking it may trick him and stop him from coming back once he left.

"Whole lot of people headed that way lately." the stranger replied. "Me, I don't get it." he gestured his left hand upwards. "Just was much nothing up there as there is down here. And I can't stand that Yankee weather."

"The cold slows down walkers." Clementine explained, remembering how she and Christa were planning on heading north before they were separated.

"Well that's not worth the trade in my opinion." the stranger countered, looking confused for a moment as he noticed Carley (or so he thought that was her name) kept constantly looking towards the edge of the kitchen counter.

He followed to where she was looking and spotted the knife. He moved towards it before she would have the chance too and picked it up in his right hand and held it up, causing Carley to jump slightly.

Clementine tried her best to hide her fear. Was he going to stab her with the knife and save himself a bullet in his gun? His expression changed into a slightly angry one as he held up the knife into the air.

"Where does this go?" the stranger inquired.

Clementine felt relieved as she knew he was going to let her live. She pointed her finger over to a draw nearby. "Over there. Uh, in that drawer there."

The stranger followed to where she was pointing and walked over to the drawer. He opened up the draw and placed the knife into the drawer.

Before long, the stranger had left the kitchen, and Clementine followed him into the next room, which was the living room. He scanned the entire room, completely unaware of the other girl hiding behind one of the couches. "Well this is a real nice place. Kinda cozy."

Clementine merely watched as she secretly hoped Sarah was no longer in this room and was hiding somewhere where she could not be found.

The stranger looked towards the couch and spotted a familiar checkered on the couch. "I knew a guy that always wore shirts like this. Doctor. Real smug son of a bitch. But a smart man. I miss him."

"What happened to him?" Clementine inquired, thinking there was something about Carlos that he may not be telling her.

"Let's just say we had our differences." he answered, his voice somewhat deeper than before like he had just gotten more deeper. "Sooner or later, people close to you will find a reason to cross you. Happens every time."

The stranger folded his arms together as he eyed the chess board on the coffee table that a couple of the cabin members must have been playing. "Well, well...white's in trouble."

While he had his back turned to the stairs, Sarah emerged from her hiding spot and slowly sneaked up each step, praying that he did not turn around or hear her before she got to the top. "Three moves away from checkmate..." he paused as a slight thud shot through his eardrums, but was loud enough for him to hear. "What was that?"

Clementine shrugged her shoulders a little in response.

The stranger walked over towards the bottom of the stairs and looked up to the nearest door he could see that he could have sworn had just been closed, but it was too fast for him to know. "I thought you said nobody's here."

"It's...Probably just the wind." Clementine assured him, glaring towards him with her eyes half-closed.

The stranger placed his hand upon his holster and held up his Python in the air, marching up towards the stairs to investigate the noise he had heard. He was followed again by Clementine until he got to the top of the stairs, seeing how two of the doors were opened, but the one near the stairs was closed.

Being cautious as he turned the door knob, he burst inside, aiming his weapon around the bedroom, carefully checking for any intruders. Clementine secretly prayed that Sarah had hidden herself well. Her thoughts were soon answered as she looked towards the bottom of the bed, seeing Sarah had hidden herself underneath.

Clementine shifted her attention back towards the stranger, who raised his weapon up after he was done checking the room. She crossed her arms while giving him an annoyed look. "I told you, nobody's here."

"Seems that way." he agreed, placing his Python back into his gun holster as he moved towards the bedroom window. "Didn't mean to be rude." he turned his attention back to Clementine. "Couldn't just leave you here with a good conscience if someone was poking around, right?"

"Sure..." she sceptically agreed.

The man smiled as he prepared to walk out from the room but stopped when he spotted something on the ground. He leaned down and picked up a photo Sarah had taken earlier on from that camera she had spotted.

"Its you." he declared, holding up a picture of Clementine that Sarah had taken when she had got back. "Taking pictures of yourself?"

"Yeah, why not?" Clementine inquired, deep down, she thought the man had picked up a photo of Sarah, and if this was the case, that would not have ended well.

The two exchanged looks with one and other, both glaring with normal expressions. Clementine hoped he would go away soon, but as for the stranger, he could now see past her lies, knowing everything she told him was a lie.

"You have no idea who these people are, do you?" the stranger asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Clementine lied, crossing her arms together for a second time.

"Let me ask you this. When you met them, how much did they trust you?" the stranger inquired.

Clementine knew he could see through her lies and there was no point of continuing them any longer. She uncrossed her arms, finally deciding to answer honestly. "Well, they found me in the woods with my dog. They took me in."

"If people don't trust you, how can you trust them?" the stranger asked, knowing what the other group were like before they had been separated for certain reasons. "Well, I think I've troubled you long enough. I can let myself out."

Clementine watched him walk back down the stairs, finally ready to leave the cabin. She called out to him before he left; needing to know something that he had told her. "Why shouldn't I trust them?"

"You have a real good day, now." he replied, completely ignoring her question as he wondered out from the cabin.

Clementine stood in the same position as thoughts wondered around her mind. Why couldn't she trust them? She thought about this for a moment while Sarah crawled out from underneath the bed she was hiding under.

The two both stared out from the window together for a moment, knowing that they had trouble coming. Now that the stranger knew the group he was looking for was holding up there, he would be back, and this time, with company.

"He's gone." Clementine declared, stating the obvious while Sarah standing beside her rubbed her right wrist with her left hand nervously.

"What if he comes back?" Sarah asked a hint of fear in her voice.

Clementine did not answer as she was lost in words of what to say exactly. For now, all they could do was wait until the others returned, and once they did, make a plan of what to do next.

* * *

Shortly after the stranger had left the cabin, Clementine, Sarah and Sam were all in the living room together. The two girls sat on a couch while Sam sat in front of his new owner, who stroked his head as he panted slightly with his tongue out.

"We need to find the others." Clementine said, finally saying something after they had been sitting in silent for a while.

"We can't go outside!" Sarah countered, remembering how protective her father was of her, and going outside without his permission would make him extremely angry.

The two girls and the dog made their way into the kitchen, but at perfect timing, the back door had opened from the outside, revealing it to be Luke with the others following behind him.

"Clementine!" Luke greeted, feeling somewhat relived that she was okay.

"Sarah!" Carlos greeted as Sarah ran towards him with her arms open. He hugged her as she ran towards him, and after what just happened with the stranger, she was afraid and needed her father.

"Did you find Nick?" Clementine inquired, looking up towards the older man.

"Yeah, we found him hiding in a shelter. We all made it back." Luke assured her, smiling across his face as he was relieved that everyone was here and accounted for.

As the others made their way into the kitchen, Sarah moved out from her father's hug as she placed her hands together with her head lowered. "A man was here."

"What?" Carlos inquired, already fearful of what could have happened to her.

"What did she say?" Rebecca inquired.

"Someone came to the cabin." Sarah repeated, afraid to look at her father, fearing she was going to see his angry expression, but she did not do nothing wrong. "Clementine talked to him."

"And you just opened the door for him?" Rebecca asked, not believing how stupid Clementine was for letting in a complete stranger (or someone she may know) into their home.

"Calm down, Rebecca." Luke soothed her, knowing how easily angry and upset she can be, especially with her hormones being all out of control.

"Calm down?! I am calm! You calm down!" Rebecca ordered, raising her voice slightly.

"I didn't open the door!" Clementine countered, knowing that the older woman had a grudge against her for some unknown reason. "He just came in."

"She's telling the truth!" Sarah reassured everyone, defending her new best friend.

Carlos changed his expression to a worried one as he eyed Clementine, suspecting whoever visited her was someone they once knew. "Did he say his name? Did he say what his name was?"

"Maybe it wasn't him." Rebecca suggested, turning towards her husband for support.

"You know damn well who it was." Alvin replied, his voice showing some anger as he too suspected it could be the same person who they once knew.

Rebecca shifted her attention back towards Clementine, gazing upon her as she folded her arms together, and repeated the same question again. "Did he say his name?"

"Why do you care so much?" Clementine inquired, only just realizing how Rebecca seemed more worried about the man that came to the cabin than to the others.

"Excuse me?" Rebecca replied, shocked of what the young girl just said to her.

"Everyone just calm down for a minute." Pete said, seeing how everyone was getting worked up about the stranger.

"Look, Clem, just...Tell us what he look like." Carlos requested, asking multiple questions for her to answer so he could make certain it was the same person. "What was he wearing? Did he sound...Different? He old was he?"

"He had a moustache, deep voice, and a big brown coat." Clementine described him the best she could remember.

"What kind of moustache? Like mine or Alvin's? And what about the coat? Did it have a lining? A collar?" Carlos inquired.

"Yeah, his moustache was bushy, and his coat had fur on the lining." Clementine answered.

"He talk about you, dad." Sarah added, hearing the entire conversation he and Clementine were having while she was trying to hide. "You're not going to hurt anyone, are you?"

"Of course he won't, Sarah, alright?" Luke assured her, knowing how Sarah had a couple of problems that made her worried about certain things. "Your dad's the nicest man I know, which is why he's not going to do anything crazy or...not nice. Right?"

"You know these are bad people, sweetie. They will do or say anything to hurt us." Carlos said, comforting his daughter as he placed his left hand upon her shoulder.

"All right, what do you think?" Luke asked Clementine, wanting to be certain they were going to be safe. "Did it seem like he'd be coming back?"

"I think so." Clementine admitted, not wanting to make the situation any more badly than it had to be. "He described how he was looking for seven of you, and even gave detail on what you look like. I tried to lie to him, but he was smart. He even asked me if I trusted you or not."

The others looked towards one and other as they were not sure on what to do next.

Carlos sighed in response as he dazed out from his thoughts while showing some gratitude towards Clementine for making the stranger leave. "We got lucky. He wasn't expecting to find us. Clementine must have surprised him. If she hadn't been there, then he might have stuck around...Well, he was too smart to stick around. But he'll be back with the rest. We don't have much time."

"He's right." Luke agreed, folding his arms together as he looked towards the others. "Everyone pack up. We're moving out."

"Alvin, wait!" Rebecca called out to her husband as he had already marched out from the kitchen, obviously eager to get moving as soon as possible.

As the others left the kitchen, leaving only Clementine, Luke, Sam, Carlos and Sarah left in the kitchen.

Carlos knelt down to his daughter's height, trying to comfort her as he knew he would have to take her out there into this tragic world. "We have to leave now sweetie, before he comes back with more bad guys. But's it's going to be okay. Let's just go get your things."

"Why did you leave his camp?" Clementine inquired, now knowing the full truth to why this stranger had appeared to this cabin looking for them.

"Because we had to." Carlos replied, walking closer to her as he tried to explain the situation to her. "Clem, I don't know what he told you, but William Carver is a dangerous man. He is the leader of a camp not far from here, and he is very smart. We were...Lucky to escape. Look, I'm sorry to involve you, but now that he's seen you, you and your dog will be safe with us. We have to leave."

Before long, everyone got their things together, and it was time to go before Carver would return. Luke declared it was time to go as soon as everyone was here and accounted for. "Alright. Everybody grab your stuff. Let's hit the road."

* * *

**William Carver has arrived, but question is: will he catch the others on their journey? Since both Pete and Nick are accounted for, the group will not need to stop to find them and can just go straight ahead to wherever their heading. Stay tuned for the next chapter, everyone.**


	5. Chapter 5: the journey to the north

**The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam**

**Chapter 5: the journey to the north**

**Greetings everyone. For taking so long to update chapter 3, I brought this next chapter out earlier than it should have been. I hope all of you liked it, and will stick around to read the rest of the story.**

* * *

The following the morning, the cabin survivors had gathered their things together and were now making their way up north, wanting to get as far away as possible before Carver would find them, and this time, with company. They were quite low on supplies on ammo, but they had to make it last for as long as possible.

While they were walking, Clementine, who was walking almost ahead of the group with Sam beside her, turned her attention around when she saw Rebecca had caught up to her. She sure hoped Rebecca wasn't going to criticize her about Carver because Clementine was not in the mood.

"Hey, Clem. Sorry if I have you some shit back there." Rebecca apologized, finally showing a friendly face to the younger girl for the first time. "I'm just a little on edge. It's just tough time right now with the pregnancy and all. You and Alvin and probably relate."

"It's okay." Clementine assured her.

"If it's not you I'm yelling' at lately, it's Alvin, and then I'm in real trouble." Rebecca explained, showing a smile across her face for the first time.

"I can handle it." Clementine reassured, turning her head to the side so they made eye-contact. "I'm not a little kid."

"I felt the same way when I was your age." Rebecca agreed, remembering what it was like to be young before the dead had risen and the world was once peaceful. "My dad was always giving me shit, and I always thought he didn't know a damn thing..."

She trailed off as she showed some gratitude for Clementine's help earlier. "I know you did your best back there. You know, none of us would make it on our own. Sometimes it's hard knowing just how dependent I am one everyone. I'm not used to that. I'm not comfortable with that. I'm supposed to be a mom soon. Guess I need to work on my patience. Alvin and I still don't know what to call her. Or him, if that man gets his wish god help me. Any ideas, Clem?"

Clementine thought about a couple of names for Rebecca to decide on what to call her baby. She smiled, thinking of two perfect names that they could name their baby. "If it's a boy, how about Lee? And if it's a girl, how about Carley?"

Rebecca had to admit she liked those options that the young girl had given her. Maybe that's just what she was going to call her baby, if Alvin agreed that is. "I like those names. Thanks Clem."

Clementine nodded slightly in response before she picked up the pace a little to keep up to Luke's speed level. Carlos and Sarah were ahead to lead the way, Luke was just behind them, and everyone else were behind Clementine.

Clementine was about to ask Luke a question but someone else had already spoken up. She turned around to see Pete and Nick, who were both carrying rifles together, and by the looks of it, their relationship had improved since last time.

"Hey, Clem...I just wanted to say...Thanks for saving me back at the stream." Pete thanked, raising a smile across his face, showing his gratitude for being allowed a second chance on this Earth. "If it weren't for you and your dog, I might-a been a goner."

"It's okay." Clementine assured, happy that she finally saved a life rather than it being the other way around when Lee or the others had to save her. She turned her attention back towards Luke, who had asked her a question.

"You sure you and your dog still wanna come with us?" Luke inquired, wanting to make sure she was comfortable going with them to...Wherever they were going. "I mean, we have got off on a good start, and you did save Pete's life."

It took Clementine a matter of seconds to answer, and she reminded him that her friend was out there somewhere. "I have to look for Christa."

"Where was she heading?" Luke inquired.

"Me and her were heading north." Clementine answered, but was confused to why that mattered where they were going in the past.

"So are we." Luke smiled, assuring her that staying with them for now was going to be her best option. "Look, you're going to have a better chance of finding her with us than your own."

He paused for a moment and pulled out a map that he had with him to check where they were going and how far it was going to be before they reached their destination. "I figure we got about four or five days to reach those mountains. Now, if they're tracking us, we should be able to lose them up there."

"Five days?" Rebecca repeated, worried that she might not be able to make it up there in time due to her pregnancy.

"It's going to be okay, Bec." Alvin assured her, knowing how paranoid his wife would be nowadays.

"We have to keep moving now." Carlos spoke up, joining in on the conversation after he had been silent for a while. "It's our only choice."

* * *

_Five days later_

Five days had passed since the cabin group had left their home in fear of Carver returning to get them, and they did not stop at all other than to sleep and rest for around five-minutes each time. They made it to a nearby river and decided to rest for a few minutes until it was safe to keep moving.

Clementine was on duty for checking the area. She laid herself down against a rock on her stomach, while looking through a pair of binoculars. She carefully scanned the area, looking out for anyone or anything.

"See anything?" Luke inquired, but did not get an answer straight away.

"She better see something." Alvin hoped, concerned for his wife since she was beginning to look quite tired due her growing physical weakness from carrying her baby. "We've been walking for a damn week."

"We need to find shelter." Carlos replied, him too concerned for his daughter as the weather was beginning to get quite cold.

Clementine moved her binoculars towards the right to see some-sort of life that looked like it would carry people to the top of that mountain on the other side of the river. "There's a lift or something."

"Chair lift?" Luke asked, looking towards his map to check if they were in the right area. "Must be that ski resort."

Clementine took her binoculars from over eyes for a moment as she thought back to before all this began. She wanted to get skiing, but her parents always promised her that they could go when she grew up. It was like a dream of hers. "I've never been skiing."

"Bec and I went once." Alvin replied, shifting himself towards his wife, who was sitting down on a nearby boulder to rest.

"It wasn't pretty." Rebecca admitted, recalling a little accident of theirs that happened when they went skiing."

Clementine shifted her eyes back into her binoculars to investigate what else looked useful. She looked a couple of feet up from the chair lift to see a big-looking house near a windmill. It looked like a good place to stay for the night, that's if someone else did not beat them to it. "There's a building on the mountain."

"Here, eat this, Bec." Alvin said, handing his wife his last bit of food for her to keep up her strength.

"Alvin, I'm fine." Rebecca reassured him, not wanting to make the others feel bad.

"What does it look like?" Luke asked Clementine, him being the only one that heard her.

"It's big." Clementine shrugged, unsure what to describe exactly since it was quite far away despite the fact she had binoculars.

Luke turned around to face Alvin and Rebecca for a moment, and they were not sure what to do or not. He faced Clementine again, and he had to admit a big house is what they need right now. "That sounds like a good place to spend the night."

Clementine saw enough of the area where they big house was and decided to look somewhere else. She moved her binoculars over to the far left where the bridge that was going to take them on the other side was, and at the end of it, was a small station house. "There's a little house by the bridge."

"How big is it?" Carlos inquired.

"It's pretty small." Clementine admitted, turning even more to the left to investigate the bridge nearby. "There's the bridge."

"And does it look passable?" Luke inquired, suspecting the bridge may be their only way across, and trying to going all the way around would take too long.

"I think so." Clementine answered, seeing the bridge looked deserted for now and did not look damaged that much.

"Good." Luke smiled, folding his map away and placing it back into his pocket while Clementine moved from her spying position.

"We have to cross that bridge." Carlos said, eager to get moving as he still suspected Carver was tracking them, and the more they stuck around, they worse. "Let's go."

"Hold on, now." Luke replied, not wanting to rush into things so quickly. "We can't all spring across that thing, okay? If we get spotted out there, we're going to be trapped."

"Going around that lake will take too long." Carlos countered, pointing two of his fingers towards Luke for a moment from his right hand.

"Right, but..." Luke tried to explain his plan to the doctor as he placed his left hand her his pocket. "Look, we've got no idea who's out there. Okay, I'm going to sneak across and make sure it's clear before we bring the whole group over."

"You think splitting up the group is a good idea?" Carlos inquired, somewhat disagreeing with his plan to go out there on his own.

Clementine merely stood next to him with a slight smile on her face and her arms crossed together. Obviously, she seemed to agree with his plan.

"I never said it was a GOOD idea." Luke replied, smiling across his face. "But it's better than risking everyone at once."

"What's your plan?" Alvin inquired, seeming to agree with his plan.

Luke began to explain his plan to the others, keeping it was short as possible and in simple terms. "Clem and I can scoot across low and slow and make sure nobody's waiting for us on the other side."

"We'll have a tough time covering you from back here." Alvin reminded, hoping it would not change their minds.

"Well, we'll just turn back if it gets hairy." Luke replied.

Everyone agreed to this plan of his-all except for Carlos, who was concerned for Clementine's well-being. At first, she was just a complete stranger, but now he was beginning to treat her as a member of their group. He crossed his arms together as he looked towards Clementine with a concerned expression. "Clementine should stay here. She's...

"She's what?" Luke inquired, him too crossing his arms together.

"She's just a little girl, Luke." Carlos reminded him.

"She's a valuable little girl." Luke countered, knowing Clementine was one in a million and was different to any other little girl. "I mean, hell, if she survived days on her own in a tree house, survive for almost three-years in this world, I'm sure she's fit to cross a bridge."

"I can do it." Clementine assured Carlos.

"See? No problem." Luke replied, reassuring them that it was going to be okay. "It's going to be fine. Okay? We'll signal you guys in ten minutes. Just watch for a light at the far side."

Clementine knelt down to Sam, who was sat down near the others. He giggled slightly as he licked her face, now treating her as his new owner. "I'm going to need you to stay here, boy. Okay? I won't be gone that long."

"We can help out." Pete replied, him and his nephew standing up from where they were sitting, wanting to make themselves useful.

"Nah, we can do this, guys." Luke replied, declining their offer to help out. "Just stay here. If we're not back in around twenty-minute, then you can help out."

Pete nodded in agreement as he sat back down against a rock, clutching his rifle tightly in his hands. He kept constantly looking towards Nick, making sure he would do anything stupid like take a shot.

"I don't like this." Carlos said, still disagreeing with this plan of is.

"Yeah, well, when's the last time you liked anything, Carlos?" Luke asked as he turned around and began making his way down the path that would lead him and Clementine to the bridge.

"If something happens, I'll cover you." Nick assured them, but got a slight nod from his uncle in disagreement as he knew Nick was a poor shooter sometimes.

Luke did not accept his offer and merely beckoned for Clementine to come with him. "Come on."

* * *

After leaving the rest of the group, the duo Luke and Clementine was walking together, heading out to investigate the bridge. While they were walking, Luke started up a conversation between them both. "Hey, uh, sorry about that. I just could really use your eyes, and right now I don't really trust anyone else to help me with this. They're just still on edge after Carver thing."

"It's been five days." Clementine reminded him, puzzled to why Carver and his men would be following them for so long. "Why would Carver still be following us?"

Luke took a moment before answering her question. He knew something that the others didn't, and as much as he should not really speak about it, he trusted Clementine to keep it a secret. "What's the most important thing in this world? What does everyone want? Even the gangs. What do you think? They're all after?"

Clementine thought about this question of his. The most important thing in the world? What could it be? Shelter? No, not everyone used shelter. Food? Food was quite important nowadays, but it was not cared about.

Finally, Clementine realized there was one option left she could think of, and unfortunately, it was not the answer she hoped for. "Family."

"It's a tough world out there with people you can trust." Luke replied, looking somewhat fearful of what he just said. "Anyways, you can ask Rebecca, okay? I'm not going to get in the middle of it. We've all made mistakes. Done things that we regret. It's not my place to talk about someone else's past, you know?"

Clementine was shocked by this as she now knew the truth to why Carver was after them. The baby Rebecca was carrying was his, or so it seemed so at least. Alvin did not seem to know, and if he was, it may devastate him. "Seems like we're already in the middle of it."

"Tell me about it." Luke agreed.

The two continued walking for a few more seconds until they finally saw the entrance to the bridge in their sights. However, they both froze n their steps as they sight of two walkers were standing by the bridge.

"Hmmm." Luke hummed, trying to figure out what to do next. "We can't shoot them. Too much noise. But they're only two."

"Let's take them." Clementine replied, but at the same time, puzzled to why he was worried that there were only two walkers, and one of them was sitting down against a rock.

"I like your style." Luke admitted before he and Clementine slowly made their way to a nearby boulder and crouched down behind it for cover. "I'll take the big one. You get shorty. You got a weapon? Wish we could use guns. We should be okay. I think."

"I grabbed a hammer from that shed before we left." Clementine replied, looking towards the smaller walker resting against another boulder. "Got it. I'll take the small one."

"Good. Let's do it." he said, preparing to sneak up on them.

The two pulled out their melee weapons that were a machete for Luke, and a hammer for Clementine. They slowly sneaked up to their targets until they were in range, and then, in the quick of a flash, they both simultaneously hit the walkers.

Luke easily decapitated the big walker, but was for Clementine; she too killed her target, but was now struggling to retrieve her weapon. She pulled as hard as she could, desperately trying to pull the hammer out from his head.

"Go ahead." Luke encouraged her, placing his machete back into his holster strapped to his back. "Give it a good pull, it should come free."

"I know. It's not the first time I killed one of these." Clementine replied, clutching the hammer tighter in her grip as she began to move it side to side until it was finally free from the walker's skull.

Luke smiled as he rose up his left hand and patted her on the back, but a little too hard that almost knocked her down due to her being only a little girl. "Nice work, kid."

"Ow." Clementine groaned, rubbing her left hand up and down against her right arm for a moment.

Luke's smile dropped for a moment as he thought she hated him for patting her a little too hard, but instead, she grinned in response. He raised a grin on his face before they both turned around and began to make their way down the bridge.

Luke and Clementine carefully made their way down the bridge, sticking to the left on the metal path. The wooden tracks looked a little unstable, so they stuck to the path just to be safe. As they got around halfway down the bridge, they saw some-sort of handcar on the track, and by it was two walkers.

One of the stood up, but the other one began crawling, and both of them snarled and growled as they made their way towards the duo, obviously eager from a bite to eat. As Luke tried to plan what they were going to do, Clementine turned around and saw yet another walker coming towards them. They were trapped.

"Shit." Luke swore, looking back and forth at the three walkers before he pulled out his machete from his holster, preparing to defend himself. He began moving towards the walker who was coming at them from behind, thinking if he killed that one first, than at least they could run away.

Clementine raised her hammer as she looked back towards the two walkers, and the one who was crawling was now walking instead, and this made him twice as dangerous.

As Luke moved towards the single walker, he suddenly felt gravity had pulled him down more than it should, and he fell through the wooden tracks. The walker who he was going to kill ended up falling down with him.

"Luke!" Clementine panicked as she ran towards the way they came. She quickly laid herself down, and was somewhat relived to see he was alive.

The walker had fallen onto a flat support beam under the bridge with part of a broken sharp pole impaled through his shoulder, but as for Luke, he placed his arms around a round metal girder behind him, and placed his legs around another round metal girder in front of him to keep himself up. "Clem! I'm okay, I just...I'm stuck!"

Clementine had to help him as she could see the walker was trying to grab him, and at any moment, he might break free and be able to grab him. She reached out her left hand, but found she could not reach him. "I can't reach."

"It's okay. Clem, look, we'll figure something out." Luke assured her, trying to keep his feet away from the walker, but if he did, he might slip and fall. He looked up to see the other two walkers were moving in on her. "Behind you!"

"Oh, shit..." Clementine swore, quickly jumping up with her hammer raised as the closest walker moving in her own. She whacked him in his right leg to bring him down to her level before aiming for his head.

Due to her panicking, she ended up impaling the hammer into the side of his face. She struggled to retrieve he weapon as the other walker was not far away. She finally got her weapon back, taking part of the walkers jaw with her in the process.

Clementine almost fell back but managed to keep her balance at the edge of the bridge. With nowhere to go and two walkers closing in on her, she grabbed onto a bridge support beam and slid herself across it, hanging on for dear life.

She lost her hammer, but the good thing was the walker she tried to attack had ended up falling off from the bridge, plummeting towards the water. She panicked as she pulled herself up towards the V-shaped support beams, only to be ambushed be the remaining walker.

Clementine cried out in fear as she fell down a little, grasping on for dear life. She was unaware that Luke was able to see her legs dangling below, and now he feared she was going to fall. Pulling herself up more, Clementine was able to shimmy across and pull herself up to the V-shaped support beam.

The walker saw her climb up and attempted to grab her, but Clementine was faster and moved out of the way, causing the walker to fall half-way through the support beam in the process. It did not take long for the walker to get free, and now Clementine had to find a weapon, fast!

She looked near the wooden tracks and saw two valuable weapons that could help her: Luke's machete and a pipe. The machete would not be able to cut through the walker's head if Clementine tried to use it with her strength, so her only other option was the pipe.

Clementine clutched the pipe as tight as she could and whacked it into the walker's head, but it merely knocked it back instead. Whacking the pipe in the walker again, she impaled the pipe through its mouth, finally killing it this time.

She took a couple of breaths before the sounds of panic erupted through the air. Now that it was clear again, she ran back towards the broken tracks and jumped down onto her stomach so she could finally assist him.

She whacked the pipe against the injured walkers a couple of times, being careful not to drop it. She whacked him again, finally finishing him off. Clementine then handed the pipe to Luke, not sure what use it was going to be now.

Luke, who was beginning to lose his grip, raised his right hand accepted the pipe and placed it across the two sections of the girders. He used the pipe as a foothold so he can stand, and was able to grab onto the railroad structure before it slipped out from his foot. "Ummmph."

He finally got up to safety, and ducked down slightly, taking a few breaths after he just escaped from the near death experience while Clementine merely rubbed her right hand against her neck, expecting a thank you soon. He recovered after a moment and thanked Clementine for her assistance. "Thanks Clem."

Clementine smiled slightly in response while nodding as in a way of saying, "You're welcome".

"Let's keep going." Luke ordered, picking up his machete and placing it back into his holster.

The duo moved past the handcar, and continued their journey over to the other side of the bridge. However, as they were walking, Luke had spotted something in the distance, and placed his right arm out slightly to keep Clementine from moving past him.

The two watched in in shock for a moment as they could see someone moving towards them, and it was certainly no walker. And by the looks of it, he was armed. The two could only hope he was merely a survivor just like them, and no bandit, or even worse, not one of Carver's men.

* * *

**Chapter 5 is written and published, ladies and gentleman. Let us hope the cabin group can escape Carver and find somewhere safe to hold up.**


	6. Chapter 6: an old friend

**The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam**

**Chapter 6: an old friend**

**Hey, everyone, I found out today that Episode 3: In Harms Way is announced to be released in May, and this is good because it will be much earlier than before. I look forward to it, and for those who own the game, I'm sure you are, too.**

* * *

"You see him?" Luke inquired; merely watching as the figure up ahead was making their way towards them.

"Yeah." Clementine replied, unsure what to do at this very moment.

"Just play it cool." Luke instructed, showing no emotion on his face as he dared not take his eyes off of the figure. "And you do the talking."

"What?! Why me?" Clementine asked, not sure if she was going to be able to handle this.

"Because I don't want to get in a fight." Luke explained, turning his attention towards Clementine for a moment. "You really think he'd shoot a little girl? Just don't make any sudden moves. And don't piss him off. And don't tell him anything." he paused for a second, unsure if Clementine was going to remember all this. "You know, on second thought, maybe I should do the talking."

"What should I say?" Clementine inquired, not knowing what to say if the figure up ahead began asking questions.

"I don't know. Ask him for directions." Luke suggested, watching as the man was not too far away now, but the good thing was he stopped moving, and froze in his steps.

The man finally said something to them; raising his voice so they could hear him from the distance he was standing in. "Well, who are you?"

"Well, who's asking?" Luke replied, somewhat asking him the same question.

"I am." the man replied, not answering his question.

"Wanna help me out here?" Luke requested, already running out of things to say to the stranger blocking their way.

Clementine spoken up after keeping silent during their little conversation. She asked the first question that popped into her mind. "We're a little lost."

"Lost, huh?" the man replied, believing her lie, but at the same time, not seeming to realize Luke had his right hand to his pistol holster, preparing to pull out his Glock 17.

Everyone stood quiet for a moment, all three of them unsure what to say. Clementine merely stood there, Luke still prepared to pull out his Glock 17, and as for the stranger, he still stood where he was.

Before long, the man continued marching towards them, finally getting close enough to reveal he was carrying an M14 rifle, a similar weapon to the Winchester Model 70 some of the cabin survivors owned.

The man stopped in his steps yet again, seeming neutral at the moment since he did hot have his weapon aimed at them. "Huh. You don't look like assholes. Are you assholes? No offence or anything. But you know how it is out here. You run into a lot of assholes."

"I'm not an asshole." Clementine assured, showing a slightly annoyed face since she did not like to swear.

"Are you calling ME an asshole?" Luke inquired, taking note of how Clementine said, "asshole" instead of, "assholes".

The man chuckled slightly as he continued walking towards them, finally realizing that these two strangers were not bad and seemed friendly. He walked close to them, now standing only a few feet away from them.

Luke and Clementine could now see the man in clear view. He looked like an Asian-American, he looked around in his late twenties, and he had a small black moustache and wore a grey and black jacket with his hood over his head, and wore dark brownish cargo pants.

The man seemed friendly...For now, at least. He now seems to trust them enough to approach them and spoke in a friendly tone. "You folks headed north like everyone else?"

""Everyone else?"" Luke queried, wondering what he meant by "everyone else". He suspected that he and Clementine was not the only people who have come across this bridge.

"I see at least one group a day move through here." the man replied, keeping his weapon holstered from them. "You all look the same. It's like a great migration of the dazed and confused."

When the man had mentioned about groups coming through here often, it gave her hope that Christa might have passed through here. "Have you seen someone named Christa?"

"Christa? Maybe." he answered, but was not one-hundred percent sure.

Clementine's face brightened and her eyes widened slightly, gaining some hope that Christa was alive. "Really?!"

"Nah, I mean, a lot of people come through here. I don't know." the man admitted as he examined the two, noticing the blood and dirt smeared across different parts of their bodies. "I got to say, you two look like shit. If you need food, I've got some canned food in that station back there."

"Well, that's, uh, awful nice of you." Luke admitted, placing his hands to his hips, but suspecting the man was going to want something in return. "What's the catch?"

"No catch. I've got plenty." the man reassured them, making himself looking even friendlier to the two.

"Well alright then, then. Thank you." Luke thanked, smiling across his face as he was glad not everyone in this world was bad, and there was still some good people out there.

"Hey, no problem. Nice running into friendly face out here." the man replied, feeling the same ways as Luke: meeting someone friendly for once in this day and age. "Like I said, I've got food and supplies back in the station. And if you want..."

The man's expression changed from a friendly one into a shocked one when he spotted something on the other side of the bridge come running towards them. "What the fuck, man?"

Clementine and Luke turned around to see what the trouble was. They were both shocked to see Nick running straight towards them with his rifle in his hands, and Pete seemed to be chasing him, but due to his old age, he could not keep up with his nephew.

"What the hell is he doing?" Luke wondered, annoyed and confused since he clearly made it to the entire cabin group not to cross the bridge until they lit the fire.

Nick had a worried in expression on his face. By the looks of it from everyone's point of view, he must have mistaken the man to be an enemy. He aimed his rifle towards him, completely ignoring his uncle shouting at him.

"Nick! God-dammit, stop!" Pete ordered, yelling as loud as he could while panting, needing to stop to catch his breath.

Clementine and Luke watched in shock as the man raised his M14 up towards Nick, mistaking him for an enemy, too. One of them was going to shoot soon unless someone did something, and fast.

"No, no, no, no! He's wi-he's with us!" Luke quickly assured him, raising his hands in the air to prove they were not enemies. He quickly spun around as he waved his hands in the air, trying to signal for him to stop. "Nick! No!"

"Put it down!" the man ordered, preparing to pull the trigger on this man.

Clementine would only think of one idea she could do to save everyone and that was too put herself on the line. She quickly ran towards the man, blocking Nick's aim from him so he would not dare shoot. "Nick! NO!"

"What are you doing?!" the man inquired, shocked that this little girl was trying to defend him even though they had only just met moments ago.

"Just put down your gun!" Clementine ordered, not wanting one of them to fire before it was too late.

"Not until he puts his gun down!" the man refused, closing one eye for a better line of a shot.

While they were aiming, Luke ran closer to Luke as fast as he could, despite the fact he had almost fallen off not too long ago. He finally got close enough for Nick to hear him. "Nick! Don't shoot! He's cool!"

"Cool?" Nick replied, somewhat shocked that Luke was saying this, but he did not have the time to think about it was his gun was suddenly snatched out from his hands. "Pete, what are you doing!?"

"You can't just aim at anyone you want!" Pete answered, holding his hands and the rifle in the air for surrender, shouting out to the man Clementine was standing by. "Hey, it's okay! We're with those two!"

The man half-closed his eyes as he looked back down towards Clementine, slowly raising his M14 down. "Is it true? Is he with you?"

"Yes, everyone over there is!" Clementine quickly assured him. "Nick's just a little paranoid. He's okay, I promise."

The man seemed unsure for a moment, but eventually, he too holstered his M14 back to his stomach and began walking towards the three men. Luke, Nick, and Pete moved back around the handcar, hoping that they were not trying to double-cross him.

Pete was the first to speak up, and offered his sincere apologizes for his nephew's behaviours. "I'm so sorry about that. My nephew's just a bit of a fucking idiot sometimes."

"Fuck you, Pete." Nick replied, acting hostile to his own uncle, still angry that his uncle always tried to give him a hard time.

"What if you shot?" Pete asked, pointing out all of the consequences that could have happened if Nick was too fire. "What if Carver is still after us? That shot would have rang out for miles."

"Alright, I get it. I'm sorry." Nick apologized, sighing as he turned away from the others.

"Are we cool?" Luke inquired to the man, hoping he would still be the friendly stranger they met not too long ago.

The man thought about for a moment, thinking these three strangers were just like sick people out there, but then again, they had a little girl with them, and that seemed reason enough for him. "Yeah, we're cool. Just don't let that happen again."

"I promise you, he won't do that again." Pete promised, handing Nick back his rifle, to which he snatched from his uncle's hands. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"I thought they were in trouble. He was waving his arms!" Nick explained, but at the same time, feeling guilty that he could have just harmed an innocent man, or even worse, accidently hit Clementine or Luke since he was a bad shot.

"Like I said, it's cool. Just don't let it happen again." the man replied, seeming friendly again as he looked towards Clementine and smiled, realizing she may have just saved his life. "Thanks for that. I'm Matthew, by the way."

"I'm Clementine." Clementine introduced herself.

"Nice to meet." Matthew smiled, looking up where he could see a few others were making their way down the bridge, and a dog, too. "They all with you?"

"Yeah, that's all of us." Clementine assured, hoping that would not get into another situation like that again.

"Well, like I said, I got plenty of food." Matthew repeated, turning himself around as he began to lead everyone towards the small station at the end of the bridge. "Follow me."

The rest of the group followed Matthew down the bridge until they had reached the station that Matthew had mentioned he had food in. Everyone seemed to have taken a liking to him, all except for Carlos and Rebecca, who were concerned to why he was being so kind.

* * *

When they arrived, Matthew turned his attention to the others when they finally made their way across. "If all of you want to wait here, I'll get some food for all of you. I got plenty, really."

"Well, that is kind of you." Carlos admitted, folding his arms together as he eyed his daughter standing next to him. "Is it just you out here?"

"Nah, there's another three of us in that ski-lodge back there." Matthew replied, gesturing his arm over to the ski lodge behind him in their view. "I could ask them to let you guys stay if you need a place to stay."

The others thought about this offer for a moment. There was still a chance Carver was after them, but then again, they needed a place to stay for a while, especially since Rebecca was growing quite weak from her growing pregnancy.

Since Carlos was practically the main leader out of them all, he spoke for everyone here. "We'll see if the others are okay with it first."

"That's good by me." Matthew agreed, turning towards the station wagon to go and get those canned food he mentioned. "I'll be back in a minute."

As soon as Matthew went into the station wagon, everyone decided to settle down for a while. Rebecca sat down on a log, needing to rest for a moment with Sarah sitting beside her. Carlos needed a word with Pete and Luke, so he lead them a couple of feet away so talk privately. Nick sat down on a wooden bench just outside the station, needing to think things over.

While they were waiting for a couple of moments, Alvin, who had both of his hands in his pockets, called up to Clementine, needing a favour from her. "Hey, Clem, do you mind going to check on that Matthew going, see what he's going? Rebecca really needs that food."

"Alvin, I told you, I'm fine." Rebecca reassured him, placing both her hands onto her pregnant tummy.

"Sure." Clementine agreed, wanting to help the couple out.

"Thanks Clem." Alvin thanked, sitting himself down beside his wife, still with his hands in his pockets.

Clementine made her way over to the station while everyone else talked little ways. Before she went inside, she talked to Nick for a moment, knowing what he had a good heart and meant well, but could be stupid sometimes.

"I'm sure they're talking about me right now. "Pete, your nephew is becoming a danger to the group!"." Nick said, trying to mimic Carlos in a fake Spanish accent. "So, is that guy cool? I swear, it looked like he was holding you guys up. I thought he was with Carver."

"He seems nice." Clementine replied, wanting to scold Nick for his actions moments ago, but found it was not the best time to do it. "You should really think before you act, Nick."

"I know." he admitted, sighing as he looked towards the ground, a hint of regret in his voice. "If Alvin is in front of me, he takes that shot...I think I am starting to lose it...You know what, I'm going to go talk to them."

Clementine merely watched as Nick stood up and began making his way over to where Carlos and Pete. She then proceeded to the station, checking on Matthew's progress to see if he got the food yet.

When she was inside, Clementine observed the small station from the inside. It had a small bunk bed with empty cans scattered across the floor. She turned to the right where Matthew was searching the inside of the trunk. "Matthew."

"Hey, looks like I was wrong." Matthew admitted, holding up two canned foods in his hands for her to see, revealing he did not have a lot left. "I only got two cans left."

"I guess you can give it to someone else." Clementine assured, wanting to give the food to those who needed it, especially Rebecca.

"Sorry, but if you guys do come up, I'm sure my partner and the rest of the group are willing to give some supplies." Matthew offered, looking to one of the cans for a moment where he raised a grin, seeing a resemblance between the girl on the tin. "She kind of looks like you."

Clementine merely stared in response, showing a normal face.

"Well, since it's your group, I'll let you decide." Matthew said, handing her both cans of food over to the young girl. He knelt down and picked up his M14, making his way back outside.

After he was gone, the door opened for a second time. Clementine looked towards the door to see it was Alvin, who walked inside to check for food for his wife. He sighed as he studied the station, surprised of how bad it looked. "Man, and I thought we had it bad. Look at this dump."

He approached Clementine, who stared at him, holding both cans of food in her hands. "Guess there's not a lot of food left. Can't imagine what would have happened if Nick shot that guy. I mean, yeah, there are a lot of crazy people out there, but that doesn't give him any excuse to start aiming guns at strangers."

"He was trying to help us. He thought he could have been with Carver." Clementine reassured, feeling somewhat sympathy for Nick since he seemed to have a bit of a temper, and tends to panic easily.

"Yeah, but someone could have died." Alvin countered. "I ain't no judge, but that would have been straight up murder in my book. I mean, you ever known anyone who would have done a thing like that?"

"Lots of people. Especially this woman who was in our group once." Clementine answered, remembering back to the day Lilly had shot Carley in cold blood, suspected her to be the traitor in their group. "It happens all the time now."

"It's fucking crazy. Pardon my French." Alvin apologized, not wanting to swear in front of Clementine due to her being only a little girl. He accepted one of the cans into his hands, smiling across his face as he showed the can to Clementine. "That's funny. She looks just like you."

"Matthew said the same thing." Clementine replied, smiling slightly across her face.

"Hey, Clem, there's not a lot of food, and Rebecca well...she's eating for two. You think we can keep this just between us?" Alvin requested, wanting to give all of the food for his wife so she could keep up her strength. "I hate to even say it, you know, but...And I'd never go against the group. But I've got to put Bec and the baby first. You understand, right?"

Clementine thought about his request while he was talking, but it did not feel right for two reasons: the group should decide on who gets the food, and Alvin was so worried about feeding a child that was most likely not even his.

She was about to say not, but decided to let him have the food this time for Rebecca and her unborn baby's sake. "Rebecca can have it. I won't say anything."

"Thanks, Clementine." he thanked, turning back towards the exit of the station. However, he stopped when he could see something on the distance out from the window. "The hell is that?"

Clementine walked beside him to see what was wrong. She gasped silently as the sight of multiple walkers could be seen crossing the bridge. "Walkers."

Alvin panicked slightly as he quickly departed from the inside of the station, joining the others outside, and they seemed to notice the situation as well. "We got a problem here."

"Yeah, we saw it." Luke replied, moving towards the older man with the others trailing behind him.

"Let's go." Matthew ordered, beckoning for them to follow him.

The members of the former cabin group followed Matthew up to the mountain, running as fast as they could to avoid the walkers that were pursing them. Hopefully, they could lose them on the way up and save themselves whatever ammunition they had left.

* * *

After a few minutes or running through the woods, Matthew had leaded everyone all the way to the ski lodge. It took all of them a few minutes to catch their breaths back while they followed Matthew towards the entrance to the ski lodge.

"You all mind staying here while I let everyone know we got company?" Matthew requested, turning back to the others as they finally caught up. "I shouldn't be long."

"We'll wait." Carlos replied, kneeling down towards the ground to rest for a moment.

Matthew nodded in agreement as he looked towards Nick standing next to Carlos, and shot him a glare for a moment before resuming his way back towards the ski lodge.

After he was gone out from everyone else's sight, Rebecca caught up to Carlos, Nick and Pete, panting slightly as she was desperate to get inside, needing to rest after walking for five days none stop. "Well? What are we waiting for?"

"We need to wait until he sees if his group is okay with us staying." Carlos answered, keeping a close eye on the cabin, obviously not seeming too trust-worthy of them. "I don't like this though."

"You don't like this?" Rebecca repeated, placing both of her hands upon her hips. "We've been on the road for five days. My back is killing me."

Alvin caught up to the others and began to study the ski lodge Matthew had walked into. The entire place was nail up tight with boards, leaving only a couple of windows exposed to see through. "They sure got this place locked-up tight."

While they were waiting, Clementine rested her arms against a wooden railing with Sam sitting beside her, looking over into the distance towards the way they came; having the feeling something was wrong. She was soon companied by Luke, who had the same feeling as her that they may be hunted and tracked without them knowing.

"Well, it'd be good to know if anybody's actually back there." Luke admitted, looking towards the top of a small tower nearby. "Could probably get a better view from up top. You'd have an easier time getting up there. You feel like taking a look? It'll be just like climbing a tree house. You know, just a really tall treehouse. Made of steel."

"What am I, a monkey?" Clementine inquired, glaring towards him with her eyes half-closed.

"Hey, you said it. Not me." Luke countered before he leaned up from the wooden railing, making his way over to the small tower.

Clementine knelt down to Sam before following suit and petted his head a couple of times, much to the dog's enjoyment. "I'll be back soon, boy. Just got to go and climb that tower like a monkey, okay?"

Sam woofed in response before rubbing his head against her shoulder.

"Just stay here with the others." Clementine instructed, standing back up the full height as she followed Luke towards the tower. She approached the ladder and looked up, seeing it was quite high, and looked a little difficult to climb.

"Just take it slow, and I'll catch you if you fall." Luke assured her, but was not being one-hundred percent honest. "Probably."

("That's reassuring.") Clementine thought to herself, rolling her eyeballs around for a moment as she placed her hands upon the ladders.

"Got a good grip?" Luke inquired, moving closer towards the ladders just in case.

"Yeah." she replied as she began climbing up the ladders, trying her best not to look down and keep focused on climbing up.

Luke watched as she continued climbing up the steps, and decided to speak up to her in a assuring tone that this was nothing compared to what he use to do. "When I was a kid we used to jump rooftops downtown. Now that was fun."

"That sounds stupid." Clementine admitted, already half-way up the small tower.

"Yeah, yeah, it was." Luke admitted. "The trick was to not look down though."

As Clementine almost reached the top of the tower, she suddenly cried out in panic as her left foot had slipped, almost losing her grip. She clutched on for dear life, closing her eyes as tight as she could.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're fine." Luke soothed, holding both of his arms up, preparing to catch her if she had fallen. "Just look at me, okay? You're fine...Alright, just-just slow down. Just for a second, okay? Got your grip?"

Clementine merely nodded her head in response, still with her eyes closed as she froze in her position. She took a couple of breaths as she looked up and took a couple of breaths before making her way up the tower.

After a few more terrifying climbing seconds, Clementine finally made it to the top of the tower, finally feeling safe. She stood up as she looked beyond the valley, the only thing keeping her company was a black bird perched on the railing. "Made it."

"See anything?" Luke inquired, raising his voice a little louder for Clementine to hear him.

Clementine raised her binoculars back over her eyes, looking back into the distance, back the way they came. She spotted the bridge they had crossed over (and almost died on) on. "I can see the bridge! Wait, I see something!"

Near the end of the bridge, a light had emerged from the woods. There were multiple thoughts to what it could be racing around Clementine's mind. Could it be Carver and his men? Or maybe it was just other people passing through?

"What is it?" Luke inquired a hint of worry in his voice as soon as Clementine mentioned she saw something.

"A light-" Clementine stopped in mid-sentence when yet another light had emerged from the woods. "Wait, there's another. Luke! Luke?"

Clementine placed her binoculars down and turned around to see Luke had run over towards the others. She watched as he joined the group who were now standing on the other side of Matthew and three other people standing with him. "Figures."

Being even more cautious this time now that Luke was no longer here to catch her if she slipped. She carefully got back into a climbing position and carefully climbed back down the tower, praying she would not slip and fall.

As she got near the bottom, a conversation between both groups could be heard nearby, and by the sounds of it, they seemed to be talking like civilized people...For now, at least. Clementine jumped from the ladders and made her way over to the others.

"Look, we won't be a problem. We'll only be here for the night." Carlos assured them, speaking for everyone as he kept his arm around Sarah to protect her if things got bad.

"That's fine with us." a man who looked in his middle fifties, wearing a red and grey sweater, with bluish jeans replied, obviously he seemed to be calm.

"Ya'll better not be thieves or murders." the man with a Winchester Model 70 threatened, sounding a little like he did not trust them since they were just complete strangers.

_("That voice!")_ Clementine thought to herself, moving past the through her grip in make sure her mind was not playing tricks on her.

"Fuck you!" Nick swore, getting irritated with this older man's attitude, feeling his temper rise.

"Everyone just calm down, please." Luke requested, sensing the situation was about to get out of side like it did on the bridge.

Clementine moved in between Luke and Nick to see the ski lodge group, and what she saw next surprised her, leaving her to wonder if this was real or not. She stood there shocked as the man with the rifle looked towards her just for a second, but then kept his attention on her as he lowered his rifle, his mouth hanging down in shock.

A huge smiled raised on Clementine's face as she stood only a couple of feet away from him, feeling too surprised and happy to move. She was told by Christa and Omid he had died, but here he was, standing right in front of her. "Kenny?!"

Luke arched an eyebrow as he eyed Clementine, a little puzzled to how she knew this man. "Wait, you know this guy?"

Kenny stood there as he looked down towards the younger girl, his eyes as wide as they could go. He now had a fully grown beard across his face, matching with his mustache, but he still wore the same hat he always wore ever since he first met them. "...Clementine?"

Without saying anything, Clementine ran towards him and embraced Kenny in a hug, closing her eyes as she moved her arms around his torso. Kenny returned the hug to her, moving his right hand upon her head, him too closing his eyes.

The two ended the hug moments later and moved a step back. They both smiled towards one and other as Kenny knelt down to Clementine's height, placing his right hand upon her shoulder.

"I'll take that as a yes." the man with the sweater assumed, smiling as he placed both of his hands near his hips.

Kenny took his hand off from her shoulder and looked over Clementine's shoulder, seeing the rest of the group merely watching. "These people with you?"

Clementine nodded her head a couple of times in response, still feeling too happy to speak.

"We can talk inside." Kenny declared, pointing his thump on his right hand backwards over his shoulder.

"Great. I just started dinner." the man with the sweater said.

Carlos looked towards the other group for a moment with his arms crossed together, now beginning to trust them since Clementine knew one of them. His daughter looked happy enough, but he still had a couple of doubts. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"It's going to storm soon." the man warned, offering them shelter for the night. "Please, come in."

Kenny's group leaded the other survivors around the cabin towards the man entrance inside. While they were walking, Clementine and Kenny looked towards one and other, smiling as they could not be happier now that they were finally reunited with each other. Maybe everything was going to be okay after all, and maybe there was still hope in this world.

* * *

**Clementine and her friend Kenny have been reunited, ladies and gentleman. And as you can see in this story, Matthew was never shot by Nick, meaning he now has a longer role in this story. Let us see what will happen next in chapter 7.**


	7. Chapter 7: a place to call home

**The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam**

**Chapter 7: a place to call home**

**Greetings, fellow users. Here I deliver to you the next chapter of my story, and if it's not too much trouble, can't any of you mind leaving a review? It would really mean a lot to me and I hate to think I'm putting a lot of work into my stories for nothing. I would really appreciate it.**

* * *

The man in the red and grey sweater (introduced as Walter by his partner Matthew) held the glass door open for Clementine, Kenny, and Matthew as they walked inside the ski lodge. When they were inside, Clementine watched in amazement as she studied the sky lodge.

The entire place was full of decorations such as Christmas lights hanging around the ceilings and the wooden support beams, flags of different countries hanging on the ceilings, with peaceful music feeling the air. A nice, warm fire kept the entire place warm, and to top it off, there was a Christmas tree near the wooden stairs.

Walter walked beside Kenny and Clementine, both of them saying nothing for a moment. "Kenny and Sarita have been staying with us for several weeks. Used to be a ski lodge, obviously, so we have plenty of food." he paused just for a second and began walking up the small steps. "And believe it or not, we still get some power from that wind turbine out front. We tend to keep most of the lights off at night to avoid drawing attention. But after we found this stuff in storage, we couldn't resist making an exception."

Clementine smiled for a moment as Kenny began to mimic what Walter was saying when he began talking about the stuff in storage they found. He waved his right hand into the air while he continued to mimic his words.

Walter paused for a moment and turned back towards the duo, seeing Clementine and Matthew with their heads lowered and their right hands over their mouths, trying their best not to laugh. "What's funny?"

"What?" Matthew inquired, pretending nothing had even happened.

"Oh nothing, Walt." Kenny assured, walking past him for a moment before patting his left hand against his back. "Walter here is one smart son of a bitch. Makes a mean can of beans, too.

"Well, why don't you two catch up while I get some dinner started?" Walter suggested, smiling as his partner walked beside him. "Care to help, Matthew?"

"Sure, as long as you don't drop that cooking pot on me again?" Matthew replied, playfully shoving his partner shoulders.

"Very funny." Walter frowned, shifting his attention back towards the exit when Luke, Nick, Alvin, and Rebecca had walked inside, studying the inside of the ski lodge like Clementine did moments ago. "Please, make yourselves at home. You can leave your things over there."

Rebecca looked towards where he was pointing, and almost immediately, she showed an un-trusting attitude towards them. "The hell we will."

"Yeah, I'm holding onto my rifle, thanks." Nick declined, feeling the same way as Rebecca did.

"You're our guests here." Walter reassured them. "There's no need to worry."

"Tell him to put his gun down, then." Nick quickly responded, referring to Kenny who was still holding his rifle in his hand.

Walter turned towards Kenny for support, wanting to show the other group they were trustworthy. "Kenny?"

Kenny hesitated for a moment before turning to Clementine for support, due to her being a member of their group. "Will you vouch for these people, Clem? If you tell them their good, then I'm good."

"Hey, your friend there was the one aiming a gun at me on the bridge." Nick argued.

"Only because you drew first!" Mathew countered, gaining a slightly angry face.

"We're cool, okay? Hey, hey, we're cool, we're cool." Luke quickly assured them, sensing things were about to get bad again.

"Clementine?" Kenny said, still wanting an answer from her if she trusted this group or not.

Clementine looked back at both groups for a moment while they were arguing with one and other. She did not want no-one else to get into more fights. "Everyone, calm down."

Everyone obeyed her request and remained quiet for a moment, the only thing they could hear was the music in the background. The door opened shortly after where Sarita had leaded Carlos, Sarah, and Pete into the cabin.

Sarah got a little enthusiastic when she spotted the Christmas tree nearby. "Dad! Look! A Christmas tree!"

"Not now, Sarah." Carlos declined, placing his hand onto her arm. Obviously, he wanted to make sure this place was okay before letting her out from his sight.

"Isn't it great?" Sarita said to Sarah. "We found it all in storage."

"It's amazing." Sarah admitted, admiring all the Christmas decorations around the ski lodge.

Kenny looked towards his girlfriend for a moment, and hearing her voice reminded him how gentle and caring she was to him and others, and this caused his expression to soften.

The former cabin group finally decided to place their items down on the small wooden stand. Luke was the first to walk over there, and set his machete down. Nick followed suit, and then the others did, too; setting their weapons and supplies down.

"Good." Sarita smiled, beckoning for the others to follow her. "If you'll all follow me, I'll show you where you can sleep."

As soon as everyone else was gone, Kenny beckoned for Clementine to follow him where they could talk privately and catch up on old times. The duo walked towards what looked like a small living room, with comfortable chairs and a nice warm fire.

The two sat down on a long sofa while Sam, who had been following Clementine, laid himself down near couch, making himself comfortable. Clementine and Kenny merely stared at one and other for a moment, not exactly sure what to say.

"Still wearing this dirty old thing, huh?" Kenny teased, raising his right hand to tap the tip of Clementine's hat. "You know, I half expected to see Lee walk up next to you. You guys were like two peas in a pod." his smile dropped for a moment when he just realized what he said. "Oh, shit, I didn't mean to...It's just hard not to think about it, you know?"

"I got him killed." Clementine replied, her head lowered in sadness.

"What?" Kenny inquired, shock to what she had just said.

"It's my fault." Clementine admitted, feeling like she could cry in sadness, but found she had no tears to cry out. "He saved me though."

"Aw, darling, don't say that. I know that ain't true. He made a choice, same as the rest of us." Kenny assured her, but found his words were not making much progress. "He was a hell of a guy. But I knew he would save you. That guy had a fire in him, sure as shit."

Kenny sighed for a moment as he thought back to all the times he and Lee helped one and other. "Lee and I had our differences, that's for sure. When my son...Well...he took care of him. I'll never forget that." he shrugged off the memory of his best friend and changed the subject between them. "So. Where did you end up?"

"After Lee, I was alone. I found Christa and Omid, but...it didn't last." Clementine answered, still showing a sad expression on her face. "Omid, well, he didn't make it. I got separated from Christa a couple of nights ago."

"Sounds like it ain't been easy for you." Kenny admitted, not being able to even imagine what she had been through these past couple of years. "I'm sorry, darling. I wish I could have found you sooner. But everything's going to be fine now."

Although Clementine was more than happy to be with Kenny again, there was a question she could not get off of her mind: how was Kenny here? "Christa told me you were dead."

"I am! This is all a dream." he joked, laughing for a moment while Clementine merely gazed at him with a 'not-funny' expression. "Sorry. Bad joke. For some reason, I tried to save that fucking shitbird Ben. Then it turned into a damn cluster. Couldn't help the kid. But I got out. Long story short, I got lucky. Real lucky. Spend a long time alone after that. It, uh..."

Kenny paused for a moment as he closed his eyes, trying to hide back any sadness inside of him. He opened his eyes again and continued the rest of his story. "And then I met Sarita, thank God. Gosh, it's great to have you back."

At almost perfect timing with the end of his sentence, Sarita had returned and placed her left hand upon Kenny's shoulder. "You two catching up?"

"Clem, this is my girl, Sarita." Kenny introduced them both, turning towards his girlfriend for a moment. "Ain't she beautiful?"

"Nice to meet you, Clementine." Sarita replied smiling, looking towards near Clementine to see the dog resting. "Is this your dog?"

"Yeah, I found him a couple of days ago." Clementine answered, leaning her hand down to stroke Sam's head for a moment.

"Hey, Walt, you started dinner yet?" Kenny inquired, raising his voice slightly for the older man to hear him.

"Just about to do it now." Walter answered, walking towards the cafeteria to prepare dinner. "I'll get started. Give me a hand, Matthew."

"Sure." Matthew replied, walking with his partner to help with dinner.

The former cabin group returned downstairs after settling in, and Sarita was the first to greet them. She approached Carlos and Sarah, who she had taken a liking to. "Carlos, right? Mind if I steal your daughter for a secret mission?"

Sarah raised a slight smile and turned to her father for approval.

Although Carlos had some doubts with the rest of the group, he felt he could trust Sarita since she was kind to them. "Stay in sight, sweetie."

Sarita lead Sarah over to the Christmas tree so they could decorate it together to help brighten up the place. As long as Carlos did not keep constantly looking at his daughter ever two minutes, then it should be fun.

As for the rest of the group, Luke walked around Carlos with Nick and Pete behind, offering their assistance as a favour for letting them stay. "Can we do anything to help?"

"Could use a hand outside." Kenny answered, standing back to full height after he had been petting Sam, who reminded him of the dog Kenny use to own before all this began. "We got a lot of supplies we need to bring in before that storm hits."

"Sure." Luke agreed, walking towards the exit of the ski lodge with Pete and Nick beside him.

"Clem, why don't you help Walt and Matthew with dinner?" Kenny suggested before he left the area they were in to assist Luke, Nick and Pete.

Now that everyone had something to keep them occupied for a while, Clementine made her way towards the cafeteria to help out with dinner like Kenny suggested. She made her way over to Walter, who was stirring some food in a cooking pot with a wooden spoon, but as for Matthew, he seemed to be washing some bowls in a sink.

"Hey Clementine." Walter greeted, taking his spoon out from the cooking pot. "Settling in well enough?"

"Yeah, thanks." Clementine smiled, already being able to tell this man was nice like a couple of the other people she knew like Alvin, Luke, Katjaa, and a couple others.

"Excellent. Want to help me and Matthew prepare a little dinner?" Walter offered, smiling as he watched her observe the contents inside of the pot. He began stirring the food again while making conversation between them both. "So how do you know Kenny? He and Sarita have been a huge help. Matthew and I barely knew what to do around here the first week."

"It's true." Matthew admitted, drying some of the bowls with a towel.

"But Kenny, well, he never slows done." Walter admitted.

"It's a long story." Clementine admitted, unsure of where to start.

Walter paused for a moment and looked towards her with a sad expression. He shrugged it off as he continued to make dinner. "Connecting with people is so important. I don't know what I'd do without Matthew." he admitted, tipping some salt into the cooking pan.

"Probably go into a state of depression." Matthew teased, grinning across his face.

"Very funny." Walter sarcastically replied, turning back towards Clementine that brought him a couple of happy memories before all this began. "Gosh, you remind me of my students. I can't imagine what it's like growing up in the middle of all this."

"Everyone underestimates me." Clementine replied, showing she was useful in many ways despite her young age.

"I expect you have used that to your advantage." Walter wondered.

"Sometimes." Clementine admitted, shrugging her shoulders slightly before crossing her arms together.

"Smart girl." Walter smiled, dipping his spoon into the food to get a little piece for him to taste. "Hmm. Almost done. Would you do me the honour of tasting the first course, madam?"

"Sure." Clementine agreed, opening her mouth for a moment as Walter got a little more food and placed it near her mouth. He accepted some of the food, and swallowed it in almost a second. "Taste...Good. What is it?"

"Le Walter Surprise. An autumnal legume salad with a peace roux." he answered, talking in some kind of posh language that Clementine did not seem to understand. "It's peaches and beans. It's all we have got."

"Nothing else at all?" Clementine inquired, wondering what it was like to eat the same meal every day.

"Well, we do have a bag of dog food." Walter replied.

"Dog food? Think you could get some for my dog?" Clementine requested, noticing that her dog looked extremely hungry since she met him.

"Sure. I'll serve him some before dinner." Walter replied, looking towards one of the cans for a moment that he picked up and showed to Clementine. "Huh. Striking resemblance."

_"(You're the third person to say that.)"_ Clementine thought to herself, rolling her eyeballs around.

"Anyway, I'll take it from here." Walter replied, carefully picking up the cooking pot in his hands up from the stove. He began humming a song to himself as he walked away from Clementine's sight.

Since she did not do much to help with dinner except for tasting it, Clementine wondered off on her own to check out the ski lodge more. She knelt down to the radio and picked up one of the CD's sitting beside it. ""Cousin Jared's concert, October 13th, 1998.""

She looked towards the Christmas tree that was currently being decorated by Sarita and Sarah, and was happy to see it brought back some memories. "I haven't seen one of these since..."

While Clementine was observing the place, nearby, Sarita and Sarah were still decorating the Christmas tree together. Sarita began humming a song to herself that Sarah seemed to take an interest to.

"What's the song you're humming?" Sarah inquired.

"Good King Winceslas." Sarita answered, tying another Christmas bulb to the tree. "It's my favourite Christmas song."

"What's it about?" Sarah asked.

"Well, it's about a king that brings food to a poor man. The King and his servant march all night through a cold winter storm to reach the man. The storm is very strong. After a long time, it gets so cold that the servant can't go on. But the king tells the servant to just step in his tracks." Sarita explained, taking a breath as she began singing some of the song to Sarah. "_"Mark my footsteps, good my age. Tread thou in them boldly. Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood loss coldly."_"

"I don't get it." Sarah replied, unsure to what these strange words meant exactly in English terms.

Sarita chuckled a little in response before trying to explain the song to her in a kind way. "It means that doing good things for people can be good for you, too."

"But the servant wouldn't have been out there in the first place if the king hadn't made him." Sarah queried, confused to how that was good.

"Good point." Sarita agreed, chuckling a little for a moment. She placed her hand upon her hip as she studied the tree before seeing a familiar face approach them both. "Clem, we could use some help. Here, Sarah, you take this and string them up over there."

Clementine helped out for a moment by stinging some more of the bulbs onto the tree.

"You knew Kenny before. It must be incredible to see him again." Sarita admitted, remembering back to the day she first met Kenny. "When I met him, well...He's so different now. But you must be so glad."

"Did he say anything about before?" Clementine inquired, wondering how he had coped since the death of his wife and son.

"No. He won't talk about before I met him." Sarita replied while she adjusted some of the decorations across the Christmas tree to make sure they did not fall off. She leaned back out to see the young girl staring at her. "Everything takes a little coaxing these days."

The trio took a couple of steps back to observe the Christmas tree. It looked just about finished, but Sarita still had one more decoration to put on top. "Perfect. Now we just need the topper."

"We always had an angel on top of our tree." Sarah replied, her left hand placed upon her right arm.

"My family didn't celebrate Christmas, but I still love the decorations." Sarita admitted, happy to celebrate a tradition that she never took part in before the dead risen and took over.

Clementine wondered off while she was talking to look for a topper for them. She made her way up the wooden stairs where she could hear a conversation between some of the former cabin group.

"It's crazy. Why would they follow us this far?" Rebecca wondered, but deep down, she already knew the answer why.

"We can't be sure." Carlos admitted, turning towards the wooden stairs for a moment when Clementine had arrived.

"It's been a week, man." Alvin reminded them, assuring them that they were miles away from Carver's group. "We got to be out of the woods." he placed his hands into his pockets upon finishing his sentence.

"We can't be sure. They might be tracking us." Carlos suggested with a worried expression across his face.

"Tracking?" Alvin repeated, taking his hands out from his pockets. "Who do you think they are, ninjas?"

Rebecca merely shook her head in response before noticing Clementine had arrived, and this only just reminded her of what happened when she climbed up the tower. "Clem, Luke said you saw some people in the valley?"

"People? Way down there? How?" Alvin asked, wondering how anyone could see that far down.

"She's got binoculars, genius." Rebecca reminded him, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah." he replied, crossing his arms together.

"What did you see, Clementine?" Carlos inquired; worried that he may be right about Carver's group still tracking them.

"I saw lights." Clementine simply answered.

"Which way did they go?" Rebecca inquired.

"Back into the woods." Clementine answered, but this was technically a lie since she had no idea where they went.

Carlos now felt somewhat relieved that there was a chance whoever those people were in the valley might have gone the other way, but he did not want to take any risks. "We cannot take any chances. We leave at dawn."

"But we're safe here for tonight, right?" Rebecca asked, only to get no respond from any of them if they were going to be alright.

"Clementine, you talk to that man Walter, right?" Carlos inquired, seeing Clementine helping Walter with dinner from the view where they were standing. "What did he say? You didn't tell him anything about us, did you? We have to be careful. They could be hiding something."

"No, nothing's wrong. I didn't tell him anything." Clementine reassured them, rubbing her left hand up her right arm. "We just talked about Kenny, and I helped him make dinner."

"Look, I don't care what that man said. We're staying here tonight." Alvin replied, trying to be serious with Carlos, but deep down, he was concerned for his wife."

Carlos could see there was no changing their minds about leaving tonight, so just accepted their wishes for now. However, he did have a little task for Clementine while they were here. "Just talk to the rest of them. They trust you. See what you can find out. I'm going to go find Luke."

Seconds after he was gone, Rebeca felt herself feeling somewhat light-headed, possibly from walking for five days when so close to giving birth. "Honey, I don't feel good."

"Bec, what's wrong?" Alvin inquired, kneeling down to her with a concerned face.

"I just need something to drink." Rebecca requested, this time, she did need him to do something for her.

"You got it." Alvin agreed, standing back up to get his wife a drink. "I'll be right back."

Before doing back downstairs, Clementine looked into a small box where she saw three Christmas decorations left there: a bulb, a star, and an angel. She was about to take the star, but remembered how Sarah mentioned she had an angel on top of her tree, and it might make her happy to see the angel.

Once she had the angel for the topper, Clementine made her way back to the top of the stairs and leaned over to place the angel carefully on top of the tree.

Down below, Sarah looked up to observe the topper Clementine had placed on top of the tree that caused her to smile. "She looks so cool!"

Sarita leaned up from the inside of the tree and observed the same topper on top of the tree. "Beautiful. I used to love this time of year. You know, now that your friends are here, this place is starting to feel like a real home."

She sighed for a moment while remembering the kindness the two partners shared with them. "Matthew and Walter are amazing people. Honestly, it's dangerous to be this kind. But they can't help it."

Nearby, Matthew and Walter were setting out clean dishes on the dinner tables, and Matthew had just heard what she said about them. "I honestly fail to see how being kind is dangerous, Rita."

"It was just a little joke, Matty." Sarita replied, turning her attention back towards Clementine.

"Matty? Rita?" Clementine inquired, puzzled to why they both just called each other that.

"The first time he met he called me Rita. So I call him Matty now. It's kind of our little war." Sarita explained, keep a hand placed to her hip.

"A war I plan to win." Matthew added, grinning as he moved over to the next table.

"Sure you will." Sarita replied, shifting her attention back towards Clementine for a moment to ask her something important about her boyfriend. "Clem, I wanted to ask you...Does Kenny seem different to you? I didn't know him before, and well...I'm curious. He has good days and bad days like everyone else. But lately I get the feeling he's...struggling."

"He does seem different than I remember." Clementine admitting, recalling earlier when he tried to make a bad joke, and how he looked a little happier than before.

"In what say?" Sarita inquired.

"I'm not sure." Clementine admitted.

Before any of them could discuss anything further, they were greeted by the same person they had just been talking about. "Well, you three have been busy."

"Kenny!" Sarita greeted, praying that he did not happen to hear what they were saying about him. "Isn't it great?"

Kenny smiled for a moment as he watched his girlfriend pick up a box or left-over decorations. He placed his hands upon the same box, offering to take it. "I got it, hon."

"I think I can manage, Ken." Sarita assured him, remembering how much he liked to help her.

"Hon, please, let me carry it?" Kenny requested, taking the box calmly into his hands without her approval before walking away.

As he was walking away, Sarita sighed as she wondered why he liked to help out more than he needed to. "Always has to play the gentleman. But I'll tell you, when I met him, he couldn't lift a fly." she paused for a moment and showed a sad expression, and sent Clementine away to change the subject. "Why don't you see if your friends are ready for dinner, Clementine?"

Clementine nodded as she made her way back upstairs to check on Rebecca. As soon as she was up, she noticed the older woman still looked a little unwell. "Are you okay?"

"Just got a little dizzy." Rebecca replied, lowering her head in sadness as scary thoughts raced around her mind. "I can't even take care of myself. How am I supposed to raise a child? I mean, how can anyone now? Everything's fucked up."

"It's not going to be easy." Clementine admitted, rubbing her hand against her arm modestly.

Rebecca lowered her head in sadness, realizing the young girl's words were right. "I know it's going to be hard. But at the same time, I already feel a little less lonely." she placed her hand upon her belly. "Because I know that no matter what happens, I'll get to meet someone new."

Rebecca paused for a moment as she kept her hand onto her stomach, feeling her baby move around inside that made her happy. "She's kicking. Want to listen?" she offered, looking down towards her stomach where she began talking to her unborn baby. "That food smells good, huh? It's okay. We're going to get you something soon."

"Can I?" Clementine requested, wondering what it was going to be like to hear a baby kicking. She carefully placed the side of her head near Rebecca's stomach, hearing a slight thumbing noise inside.

"She's going to be runner." Rebecca joked, raising a smile as Clementine took her head off from her belly. Her smiled soon dropped as she struggled to hold back her tears, confessing something to Clementine that she had not told anyone else, even her husband. "It's not his."

Clementine was not really shocked about this since she already figured that out when speaking with Luke, but why she told her was a mystery. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I trust you. For some reason. And I can tell you've kept a few secrets." Rebecca explained, lowering her head down in sadness and fear. "If he finds out, he'll kill me. I don't know what to do...I can't believe I'm asking a little girl for advice. But I guess nothing is weird anymore."

"He won't kill you." Clementine assured, knowing that Alvin was nice just by looking at him.

Rebecca was about to reply further but suddenly changed the subject when Alvin had returned, carrying a bottle of water with him. "There's my man."

"You alright, baby?" Alvin inquired.

"I'm fine, you big dope." Rebecca assured, accepting the bottle of water from him.

"Just need to get some food in you." Alvin replied, turning around for a moment to thank Clementine for keeping his wife company. "Thanks for staying with her, Clem."

Clementine smiled in response as she made her way back downstairs with the others. At almost perfect timing, Walter had declared it was time for everyone to eat, and this was great news for those who had not eaten in a while. "Well everyone, dinner is served. Come on, let's eat."

Both groups made their way over towards the cafeteria, eager for something to eat. Every sat down on the wooden bench tables as Walter carried the pot around, giving everyone their dinner.

Luke sat down the opposite side from Nick, and noticed he had a somewhat worried expression across his face. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah. I'm just...I just wish I didn't overreact at the bridge." Nick replied, closing his eyes as the thoughts of shooting Matthew raced around his mind.

"Just try to forget about it." Luke advised, acting like a brotherly figure to him.

After everyone had settled down and eaten, Clementine was the only one to have not sat down yet. She was about to head over to Luke, who had his hand raised, until Kenny had suddenly called out to her. "Right here, Clem!"

Clementine looked towards both bench tables, trying to decide who to sit with. On the left side were Luke, Nick, Pete, Rebecca, Alvin, Sarah, and Carlos, all members from the cabin. On the right side were Kenny, Sarita, Matthew and Walter, all the members of the ski lodge.

Clementine continued looking towards both groups as she continued to try and decide who to sit with for dinner.

* * *

**And the next chapter is complete. And in this chapter, I decided not to have Kenny lash out at Sarita and have him do it in a more calm and sensitive way. Stay tuned for the next chapter, and it might be the last one until Episode 3 has been released.**


	8. Chapter 8: invasion

**The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam**

**Chapter 8: invasion **

**Well, this is going to be the last chapter until Season 2 Episode 3 is released. I hope all of you enjoyed it so far, and this is by far the longest chapter I have ever written in my entire life. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Clementine continued looking at both bench tables for a few more seconds, trying to decide who to sit with. As much as she wanted to sit with her new friends who took her in, she knew Kenny longer and had to sit by him.

She smiled as she sat down beside Walter and Matthew, and was glad to see Kenny had a happy expression across his face.

"Here you go, Clem." Walter said while pushing a bowl of the food he cooked over to her. He then placed another bowl onto the bottom of the table where Sam was sitting with his tongue out. "And here's some food for your dog."

"Thank you." Clementine thanked, watching as Sam practically devoured into his dog food, obviously starving from not eating for so long.

Luke turned around for a moment, showing a sad and disappointed expression due to Clementine not sitting with them. But nevertheless, he turned around and continued his dinner with the others.

Kenny had noticed Clementine and Luke together sometimes and also noticed him looking towards her when she sat down, and this caused him to ask a question to her: "So, Clem we were just talking...What's the deal with the kid? What's his name...Luke? He in charge? You trust him?"

Sarita looked towards Clementine and noticed she felt a little uncomfortable with this question. "Kenny, please."

"Sarita, we don't know these folks." Kenny explained, still showing a little distrust towards them.

"They seem nice." Sarita reminded him.

"Yeah, well, gators seem nice too, until they bite your damn arm off." Kenny clashed, grinning slightly as he tried to make another joke like earlier.

"Kenny!" Sarita sighed.

Clementine looked back towards Luke for a moment while the two were talking. She liked Luke. He was her friend, he was one of the two who found her and brought her back to the cabin, and he even acted like a brotherly figure to her sometimes. "I like him. He's a good guy."

"Would you trust him with your life?" Kenny inquired, trying to talk quiet so the others did not hear him.

"I think so." Clementine admitted, arching both her eyebrows up when she was speaking.

Kenny nodded slightly in agreement, knowing that Clementine would never lie to him or anyone else. He looked back over towards the other group, keeping his attention focused on Alvin. "That guy...Big Al? He said you were on the run."

"Some people are after them." Clementine explained, whispering slightly as she remembered Carlos told her not to say anything about them.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that no more." Kenny assured her; excited that he finally had her back and could help raise her like she was his own daughter. "They'll go tomorrow and you and your dog can stay here."

"Absolutely." Sarita agreed, shifting her attention back over to Clementine. "Honey, you stay with us as long as you want."

"She's staying for good." Kenny added, raising his finger for a second in mid-sentence.

"If that's what she wants." Sarita replied, sensing that her boyfriend was going to get overprotective of her like a fatherly-figure.

"Of course she does." Kenny replied, speaking for Clementine as he turned his attention back towards her again for an answer. "Right, Clem?"

Clementine had to admit she did like the idea of staying with Kenny and the others, but something in her heart told her not to. Her group now treated her as part of their group, and a couple of them treating her like family, and if she was to leave them, then it would look like she did not appreciate their help. "I can't leave my friends."

"What?" Kenny asked, shocked to what she had just said to him.

"Of course you can't." Sarita agreed, placing her left upon Kenny's hand, keeping him from getting worried or angry. "They can stay too."

"No." Kenny refused.

"Honey." Sarita soothed.

The two decided to drop it for now and continue to enjoy the rest of their dinner for the rest of the evening. Before long, Walter, Matthew, and Sarita had finished their food and got up from the bench table.

Seconds after they were gone, Luke and Nick had stood up, but instead of simply leaving, they both made their way over to the other table. Luke sat down beside Kenny while Nick sat down beside Clementine.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment as Clementine had lowered her head when Luke had looked at her with a slightly sad expression. Kenny was the first to speak, and he greeted Luke in a friendly voice. "Hey there."

"Hey." Luke greeted.

"Hope you like the food." Kenny hoped, staring towards Nick, who was still eating his dinner. He was starting to think Nick had some resemblance towards him, but refused to think they were the same.

"Oh, it's great, thank you." Luke thanked.

"Peaches and beans. Great for nutrition. Not too great on the way out, thou, I tell ya." Kenny admitted, beginning to laugh towards himself after making yet another bad joke that no-one seemed to laugh, too.

Clementine looked towards him with a disgusted expression, and this caused her to lose her appetite.

Kenny finished laughing to himself and looked over to both Luke and Nick, seeing if he could remember their names correctly. "So it's Luke...and Nick. Luke and Nick. You guys sure do look like a match."

Saying this, it caused both Luke and Nick to put down their spoons, and it certainly made Nick angry, suspecting Kenny was trying to say they were a couple. "What's that supposed to mean?" Nick asked.

"I'm just saying you look like good friends, that's all." Kenny assured the duo, grinning slightly across his face.

"So what was your plan here?" Luke inquired, turning his attention away from Clementine over to Kenny. "Hold out for the winter?"

"Actually, we were thinking of moving on." Kenny admitted. "Somewhere up north. You ever heard of a place called Wellington?"

"Wellington?" Luke repeated, not being familiar with this place. "The hell is that?"

"A place." Kenny simply answered, not giving much detail about the place he just mentioned.

"What kind of place?" Luke inquired.

"A good one, Einstein." Kenny replied.

When Kenny had mentioned Wellington, it made Clementine remember back to a couple of nights ago when she and Christa were heading up that way. "Yeah. Christa and I were going there."

"Supposed to be a big camp up near Michigan." Kenny admitted.

"Michigan?" Nick repeated.

"You got a hearing problem, kid?" Kenny asked, getting slightly annoyed that he had to keep repeated himself for them both. "Yeah, Michigan. Think about it. Fresh Water, lots of land, and cold ass winters, so the walkers get slow."

"Sounds like bullshit." Nick admitted, suspecting this place sounded too good to be true.

Kenny frowned slightly, beginning to get angry with their attitudes, especially Nick. "Listen, Vanilla Ice, I don't know what your deal is, but you're more than welcome to take off in the morning."

"Well that would be just fine by me." Nick agreed.

"What's the deal with these guys, Clem?" Kenny asked Clementine, now shocked to why Clementine had chosen to stay with these sons of a bitches.

"Hey, fuck you, buddy." Nick clashed, getting sick of the older man talking about him and Luke like that.

"It's fine, Nick." Luke assured, keeping calm under the current situation as he could sense the situation was getting out of hand. "We're not staying."

"She's staying." Kenny replied, trying to say Clementine was no longer with them.

"Wh-excuse me?" Luke inquired, shocked to what he had just said about her.

"You heard me." Kenny replied.

"Please. Don't fight." Clementine begged, keeping them quiet just for a moment with the assistance of Walter.

"Gentleman, please. There's no need for this." Walter admitted, holding up a small can in his hands. He watched as they fell silent, but was still giving each other an evil look. "Now look, we have all had long day. Please, eat."

The others obeyed Walter wishes and began eating the rest of the dinner in peace, settling this little argument of theirs for now. Kenny looked over towards Clementine and requested something. "Pass me that can, Duck."

Clementine's eyes widened when Kenny had accidentally mistaken her for his son.

Kenny gasped seconds later when he had just realized what he said, showing that he was still deeply affected by his son's death. He closed his eyes as he lowered his head in sadness, seeing the image of his son being put down by Lee in his mind.

"Duck?" Luke queried, confused to who he just mentioned. "Who's Duck?"

Silence filled the air for a moment as Kenny went into depression while Nick and Luke were confused to who he had just referred to.

"Duck was his son." Clementine answered, closing her eyes as she remembered the boy who was like her best friend.

Luke and Kenny now understood what had happened, and both felt sympathy for Kenny, knowing what it was like to lose someone you cared so much about it.

Walter decided to pull Clementine away for a moment to let Kenny be alone. "Hey, Clementine. Would you, uh, lend me and Matthew a hand outside for a moment?"

Clementine agreed and stood up and followed Walter to the exit of the ski lodge. She watched as Kenny had his head lowered in sadness.

* * *

Walter escorted Clementine and Matthew outside of the ski lodge. He looked back at Clementine while they were walking slowly. "I'm sorry about that. I used to be a teacher. And I remember what it's like to be caught in the middle of two cliques." they stopped outside while Walter continued speaking. "I suspect they'll find common ground soon enough. It may take a little time, but that's just how these things work. Everything will be fine."

"He's right, Clementine." Matthew assured her, carefully scanning the area for any hostiles with his M14. "Things just take time to work out."

"Yeah, relationships are like any machine: You don't throw them out when they break down." Walter explained, speaking in a kind yet smart language to Clementine. "You get your hands dirty and you grease the wheels. What do you say? Will you help me work on them?"

"I'm leaving in the morning." Clementine admitted, hoping it would not upset the two.

"I know. I overheard." he admitted, stopping yet again for a moment to tell Clementine something. "They say the world is over, but I'll tell you a secret: it's not. People are now more political now than they ever were before. In the end, we can't change the world. All we can do is continued to learn from each other; to empathize and use our heads. "

Matthew rolled his eyeballs around for a moment, not believing how much his partner could talk without taking a breath.

""All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal." Steinbeck. Have you read him?" Walter inquired, but his happy expression changed when he noticed Clementine had a confused expression. "Well, we have plenty of time to catch you up on your reading before you go. Matthew is amassing quite the literature collection. Right, Matthew?"

"Right." Matthew agreed smiling.

"In any case the point is: as long as we have our wits about us, we can always make the right choice. Right?" Walter asked, placing both of his hands to his hips.

"It's never that easy." Clementine admitted.

"What's the matter, Clementine? Is there something you want to tell me?" Walter inquired, being able to tell there was something wrong by the expression on her face. He knelt down to her in a friendly manner to make her feel more comfortable. "You can talk to me and Matthew, Clem. There's almost nothing you could tell me that would surprise me. I can promise you that."

"I'm worried about Kenny." Clementine answered, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "He still misses his family and I'm worried he might be losing it."

"Don't worry; Kenny will be alright. Sarita will be with him and everything will be fine." Walter reassured, standing back up to full height as he beckoned for them to follow him. "Now, let's go and check out the windows while we're here before that storm hits."

The trio walked around the side of the ski lodge to check the boarded-up windows. However, as they go there, they spotted someone looking through one of their windows, and immediately, Matthew was about to aim his rifle, but Walter stopped him. "Miss?"

The woman leaned up and jumped in fear when she noticed one of them was carrying a weapon. She looked around in her middle twenties, she had long red hair that was tied back, she wore a long green t-shit with a brownish hunting vest, and to top it off, she wore blue jeans with brown boots.

"Please. Do you have any food?" she inquired, showing a sad face as she pleaded for help.

"Are you okay?" Walter inquired, immediately believing her.

"I saw the house, and...I have a family. We're starving." she explained, gesturing her left arm back towards the way she came from. "We live down there."

"Of course. Why don't you come in, miss..." he paused as he did not yet know her name.

"Bonnie." Bonnie introduced herself, keeping her sad expression across her face.

"Walt, I'm not so sure." Matthew admitted, preparing to raise his rifle just in case. "You just going to let in a stranger like that?"

"Its fine, Matthew." Walter assured him. "We just have to get to know her, right, Clem? How much damage can this poor woman do?"

"I don't think she can hurt anyone." Clementine admitted, and this caused Bonnie to smile for a moment.

"Thank you, really, but that storm will be on us soon and I got to get back to my family." Bonne replied, appreciating all they were doing for her even though they had only just met moments ago.

"I'll bring something out to you then." Walter offered.

"You don't have to do that." Bonnie declined, not wanting to seem too rude. "What about your people?"

"No, no, it's fine. " Walter assured her, taking a couple of steps back to go and get some supplies for her. "We've got plenty. You stay put. I'll be right back."

Clementine and Matthew remained silent as they dared not to take their eyes off from her, fearing she might try something. To Matthew, she was just a stranger, but to Clementine, she suspected she could be with Carver. But then again, why would Carver send only one person out here?"

"I have a little girl like you." Bonnie said, raising a smile as Clementine folded her arms together. She leaned down slightly with her hands placed to her knees. "How old are you, sweetie?"

"I'm eleven." Clementine answered, somehow being able to keep track of time.

"I would have thought older than that." Bonnie admitted, leaning back up to full height when Walter had returned, carrying a box full of food.

"Here you are, miss." Walter smiled, handing the box of food over to her.

"This is too much." Bonnie said, accepting the box into both of her hands, but at the same time, feeling a little guiltily for taking so much. "I don't really know how to thank you."

"Don't mention it." Walter assured, only asking for one favour in return. "Just help someone else down the line."

"Thank you so much." Bonnie thanked, smiling as she thought it was time to leave now. "I'll be going now."

"You stay safe." Walter told her.

"You too." Bonnie agreed.

Before long, Bonnie had eventually left them and took the supplies back down the hill for her family she claimed to have. Clementine, Walter, and Matthew began to make their way back towards the ski lodge. However, before going inside, the trio looked towards the wind turbine, and noticed it began to spin faster than usual from the storm, causing it to make a loud noise.

The trio merely watched as they stood outside of the ski lodge where everyone except for Sarah, Rebecca, and Alvin had ran outside, obviously they had heard it, too.

Kenny panicked as he looked towards the wind turbine, realizing it was going to attract unwanted attention. "The storm's got in spinning out of control. That sound's going to draw walkers. We got to shut it down, now!"

Carlos nodded as he turned his attention to Pete. "Pete, help me carry the guns."

"Guns?!" Sarita repeated, watching as they both went inside to fetch the weapons.

Clementine watched as Carlos and Pete ran as fast as they could to fetch the guns, and it only took them a matter of seconds. She was surprised slightly when Pete offered her a Glock 17 to use.

Kenny caught the Winchester Model 17 that Nick threw him, preparing to head out there as soon as possible. "That thing's a damn dinner bell."

Before long, everyone was armed with a weapon and made their way over to the wind turbine, except for Walter and Matthew, who decided to guard the ski lodge. Clementine had a Glock 17 in her back pocket, Kenny and Sarita clutched a Winchester Model 17, Carlos held a Beretta 92FS Inox with a Winchester Model 17 strapped to his back, Nick had a Glock 17, Pete was armed with a crossbow, and to top it off, Luke was armed with his machete.

The group turned their attention towards the same direction when they heard something break.

"What the hell was that?" Luke inquired.

Kenny looked back towards the ski lodge and noticed the lights had been turned off, meaning the power was gone. "Dammit. Transformers must have gone. Got to check it. I could use a hand."

"I'll go with you." Luke offered.

"I'm going, too." Sarita said.

"No. It's too dangerous." Kenny replied, not wanting to lose another loved one yet again. He turned back over to the others and gave them their orders. "Rest of you, get this thing shut down."

As Kenny and Luke departed, Sarita opened up the power box. The remaining people watched as they could see nothing but darkness in the inside of the box, unsure of what to do next. "Does anyone know how to do this?" Carlos asked, only to shrugs from everyone.

"I can do it." Clementine assured, looking up to Carlos.

"We'll watch your back." Carlos assured, raising his weapon up as he turned towards the others. "Pete, Nick, scan the trees with me."

While the others defended Clementine, she pulled out a lighter from her pocket to see inside the power box better. She spotted the rub button that must be the one to turn of the wind turbine.

"Dammit. It's too dark." Carlos admitted, just about able to see anything around the area. "We have to shut this thing down."

Clementine grabbed the key from the hook inside and placed it inside the red button. She placed the key inside and turned it, pushing down to turn it off.

The wind turbine slowly came to a halt, and the remaining group all looked up towards it, praying they shut it off in time. "Something ain't right." Nick admitted.

"Yeah." Carlos agreed.

Out from the woods, snarling and growling could be heard from a distance. The group watched in shock as walkers emerged from the trees; making their way over to the wind turbine. This sure was not going to end well for them.

"We don't have much ammunition." Carlos declared, raising his pistol up.

"We got to get back to the lodge." Nick suggested, realizing they were outnumbered. He quickly turned around when he heard footsteps from behind them. "They're behind us!"

"Everyone, stay together!" Pete ordered, firing an arrow from his cross bow.

The group stay in a circle as they began to fire their weapons in different directions, shoot whatever walkers they could see in their sights. They would have to make their weapons last, otherwise they would be using them as melee weapons.

Clementine turned back towards the ski lodge and panicked when two walkers were heading towards her. She took cover behind a tree stump and leaned up with her weapon aimed at the closest walker. The first shot she fired hit him in the shoulder, but the second one hit him in between his eyes.

She ran over to a boulder, looking back over her shoulder to see Nick firing at a walker before running away. She leaned up, and aimed her pistol towards a group of walkers. There were at least six of them, and they were all making their way towards Clementine.

Clementine fired her remaining bullets at the six walkers, managing to kill four in the process. She attempted to fire more, but found her gun did not fire and rather clicked. She took a couple of steps back as the two walkers moved in on her.

A gunshot was suddenly fired, followed by the closet walker collapsing to the ground with a sickening thud. The other one was shot too, and just in time since it was close to attacking Clementine.

Clementine looked back to see it was Carlos who had saved her.

"Run! Go!" Carlos ordered, suddenly jumped back when he felt a walker had grabbed onto him from behind. He narrowly cheated death and shot it, but it knocked off his rifle off of his back in the process, and the walker had collapsed down onto it. He did not have time to retrieve it so quickly ran away, shooting a walker before leaving. "Keep moving, get to the lodge!"

Clementine was about to follow him, but halted when a walker had emerged from behind a bulldozer. She took a couple of steps back but stopped when she felt something touch her foot. Clementine looked down to see the walker Carlos had just killed, and under it was his rifle.

Realizing it was her only hope for survival, Clementine knelt down and placed her hands upon the corpse, pushing as hard as she could, but it was not easy due to her being only a little girl with not much strength.

Eventfully, Clementine was able to push the corpse back and retrieved the rifle. She had no experience with rifles, but now was a good time to learn. She pulled the trigger, but the force of the rifle was so powerful, it knocked her down to the ground. "Ahh!"

Quick as a flash, Clementine retrieve the rifle again, but this time, remained sat down so it did not knock her again. She pulled the trigger, and this time, finally killed the walker. She tossed the rifle away and began running back to the ski lodge, realizing it would slow her down.

As Clementine was near the ski lodge, she froze in her tracks when she spotted Nick fighting with a walker, struggling to hold it back. "Nick!"

"Please help me!" Nick begged, being able to see his uncle in the corner of his eye. "Pete!"

"Nick, I'm coming!" Pete yelled; about to run over to assist him, but found he was blocked by multiple walkers. "Oh, shit!"

By the entrance to the ski lodge, Clementine spotted Matthew there with his M14 in his hands. He aimed the rifle towards Nick, but hesitated for a moment as he tried to decide if he should save him or not.

Clementine could only watch and pray that Matthew would not wait too long and let the walker bite him, or shoot Nick in revenge for almost killing him earlier.

A gunshot rang through the air, and the walker Nick was fighting with collapsed to the ground as blood burst from the inside of its face. Nick looked back over to Matthew, who gave him a slight nod, to which Nick returned.

Everyone defending the ski lodge ran towards the outside of the ski lodge, firing what ammunition they had left.

"Clem...get inside! Go!" Carlos ordered after seeing more walkers were approaching them in the distance.

Everyone firing their weapons towards the walkers up front as Clementine ran back into the ski lodge like Carlos had ordered.

When she was inside, the ski lodge was now dark without any power, making it a little difficult to see in. Clementine ran up towards the small living room where Alvin, Rebecca, Sarah, and Sam were waiting.

Sam ran towards Clementine as fast as he could, jumping up to her with his paws placed upon her chest, but she did not have to time to greet him properly in the current situation they were in.

"Clementine! Are you okay?" Rebecca inquired with a hint of worry in her voice.

Before Clementine answered her question, gunfire was heard back outside, but it did not sound like any of the guns they owned. Instead, they all sounded like automatic rifles.

"What the hell...?" Alvin said, running towards the window to investigate what was happening.

Clementine also quickly ran towards the window to see what was going on outside.

Outside, all of the attacking walkers fell down one by one as the gunfire continued to fill the air. Near the ski lodge, Carlos suddenly turned around when a walker almost got him again, but before he could fire, someone else had beaten him to it.

The last walker collapsed, and out from the woods, four figures emerged from the woods, making their way over to the ski lodge. Three of them were carrying Ak-47's, but the leader of the group was unarmed.

Carlos gasped slightly to see it was William Carver, who approached the group with his men following behind. Carver grinned as his soldiers surrounded the remaining group, who could not fight them without ammo. "Howdy, folks.

The three of Carver's soldiers surrounded Carlos, Walter, Matthew, Sarita, Luke, and Pete in a circle.

Three of Carver's men did not look familiar to them. One of them had longish brown hair with a short moustache, he looked around in his middle thirties and he wore dark green army jacket and light green army pants. As for the other one, he wore an orange beanie hat; he had longish black hair, he looked around in his early twenties, and he wore a long dark brown coat and blue jeans.

"Where's Rebecca?" Carver asked Carlos.

"Carver...!" Rebecca gasped, watching the entire thing through the window.

Carlos did not reveal her location, and instead, he spat in his face.

"It's nice to see you, too." Carver replied, wiping the spit off from his face. He curled his hand into a fist seconds later, and hit Carlos directly in his face, almost knocking him down.

"Dad!" Sarah panicked, immediately running towards the exit of the ski lodge.

"Sarah!" Rebecca gasped, but was not able to do anything to stop her.

Sarah ran outside of the ski lodge, completely ignoring the danger ahead. She embraced her father in hug, and he returned to his daughter. She hid from Carver as her father kept his arm around her.

Carver looked towards the ski lodge where Sarah had run out from and pointed his finger towards it. "Inside."

As Carver's people moved everyone inside, Walter looked towards the other soldier and was shocked to see it was someone he knew. "It's you."

Bonnie showed a sad and regretful expression on her face for a moment, but she quickly shrugged it off before any of them noticed. "Keep moving."

Inside the ski lodge, Alvin and Rebecca slowly began to make their way upstairs. Clementine gasped for a moment when Carver had made his way inside. She hid behind a couch, but panicked when Sam was not with her. "Sam...? Sam...?!" she whispered.

Clementine sighed in relief when she saw Sam making his way upstairs with Rebecca while Alvin remained at the bottom of the stairs.

Bonnie whistled as she observed the inside of the ski lodge while everyone else escorted the prisoners over to the end of the room. "Look at this place."

Near the other side of the room, Alvin gave a little signal for Clementine to keep an eye on the man with the beanie hat since he was heading her way. She nodded and carefully leaned up over the couch, keeping an eye on the man.

"You believe this fucking place, Bonnie?" he admitting, scanning the around the area for the rest of them. "Power and everything. A lot of windows, though. It's fucking huge. Bill's going to hate it. The rest of them could be anywhere."

While he was not looking, Alvin beckoned for Clementine to make her way over here now that she had the chance. Clementine quickly snuck over towards Alvin while the man was not looking her way. "How we going to cover these guys and look for them too?"

"Johnny, cover that window. Troy, cover these guys." Bonnie ordered them, turning her back to Walter when he looked her way.

Back upstairs, Clementine, Sam, Rebecca and Alvin kept crouched down as they silently discussed what to do next. Clementine peaked her head up just for a moment to see all of her friends were being forced down onto their knees, sitting in a row with their hands tied behind their backs. All except for Carlos that is.

Now that everyone was secured, Carver carefully scanned the area for Rebecca, her being the only reason he was here. He marched back over to Carlos and grabbed him by his hair, throwing him into the middle of the room. He hit him in his stomach that knocked Carlos done onto his knees.

"Dad!" Sarah gasped, unable to assist her father.

"Listen, I'm only going to ask you once. Where's Rebecca?" Carver asked, watching as Carlos coughed a couple of times while struggling to get his breath back.

Carlos still refused to tell him what he wanted to know, and looked towards his daughter, who he could tell was dramatized by all this. "Sarah, look at me. It's going to be okay."

Carver pulled Carlos up by grabbing his hair again, and grabbed his right hand and bending his middle finger back in the quick of a flash. Carlos screamed in agony as he collapsed to the ground.

"Rebecca? Rebecca, our baby deserves to be raised in a place of safety." Carver said, calling out to her as he knew she was hiding her somewhere. "I know you're out there, Rebecca. And Alvin. And Luke. And the girl. And her dog. This is real simple. You want this over quick; you all play nice and show your faces."

"Don't hurt my dad! Please!" Sarah begged, crying tears out from her eyes.

Despite Alvin being shocked by the news about the baby, he ignored it for now and got back to the situation at hand. "He'll kill him."

"No, Alvin." Rebecca replied, already knowing what he was going to do just by looking into his eyes.

"We got to go down there." Alvin suggested, showing a worried expression across his face.

"I can't do that." Rebecca refused, fearing that he would kill her husband.

"Bec...the baby...you need a doctor." Alvin reminded, needing Carlos to help deliver to the baby when it was time.

"No. Where is Luke and Kenny?" Rebecca asked, only just realizing those two were not amongst the prisoners downstairs.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Alvin replied.

"They're still outside." Rebecca reminded, realizing they were their only hope to get out of this. "They can help us."

"We have to help Carlos." Clementine admitted, clutching her hand onto Sam's collar when he was growling silently under his breath. "Shhhh, Sam."

"Only way to help him is to do what the man says." Alvin explained.

"What about Like and Kenny?" Rebecca repeated.

"Look at those guns." Alvin said, noticing their automatic rifles made them powerful and dangerous to take head-on. "We start shooting and people are going to do, on both sides.

Carver grabbed another one of Carlos' fingers and without hesitation; he broke it back out of place, watching as Carlos cried out in agony. "ARRRRGG!"

"DAD!" Sarah cried out, not being able to watch her father suffer like this.

"Clem can sneak out. Find Luke." Rebecca suggested, noticing the nearby open window that looked big enough for Clementine to squeeze through.

"What the hell's she going to do?" Alvin asked, unsure if Clementine could assist them much due to her being only a little girl. "And you heard him. Carver knows she's with us."

"Just stop!" Sarah begged, but her pleas were no use. "Don't hurt my dad. Please."

Alvin was unable to watch his friend suffer anymore. "We're going down there."

"He'll kill you." Rebecca said, knowing how cruel Carver would be.

"Fuck you." Carlos swore, practically begging for anyone out there to just kill him and end this tyranny. "Shoot him! Somebody just shoot hi-"

Carver grabbed the back of Carlos' hair and pulled him back while he held his knife against his neck, preparing to end this unless Rebecca came out.

Rebecca turned her attention back towards Clementine, needing her to get Luke and Kenny, now! "Clem, go get help."

"He'll kill him, Bec!" Alvin argued.

"He'll do it anyway!" Rebecca clashed, thinking there was nothing they could do now to help him.

"You don't know that." Alvin countered.

"Say goodbye, Carlos." Carver said, preparing to slice his throat upon so he would suffer before dying.

"Don't look, sweetie." Carlos said to his daughter, not wanting her to witness what was going to happen next. "Don't look."

"Dad!" Sarah said, stuttering slightly as she could not take her eyes away no matter how hard she tried.

Clementine looked back at both Rebecca and Alvin while they were arguing about what to do. She had to get help; otherwise Kenny and Luke might return and run into a trap. "I'll find Luke and Kenny. Stay here."

"Goddammit." Alvin sighed, fearing they had just made a huge mistake.

Carver pulled Carlos back further as he did not yet kill him, but that did not mean he was going to spare him. "You never listen." he mumbled.

Alvin opened up a small window for Clementine to go through and although he did not agree with this plan, he decided to help out the best he could. "Hurry."

"Let's see if I can get your attention." Carver said, beginning to torture Carlos further until he coaxed Rebecca out of hiding.

Clementine jumped down out from the window and quietly began to make her way around the cabin. She peaked through one of the boarded up windows and cringed as she witness Carver hitting Carlos and hearing Sarah sob in sadness.

She leaned back up and carefully made her way around the ski lodge. She leaned around the corner of the building and was happy to see Kenny in some kind of booth, aiming his rifle towards the ski lodge. Luke, however, was not present with him.

"Clem!" Kenny called to her in a yelling whisper.

Clementine began to make her way over to him but suddenly froze when she could see the man known as Johnny had walked over to the large windows, and she quickly reacted by leaning back as much as she could.

Fortunately, he did not see her and turned back around from the window, and began complaining about the weather. "Goddamn it's dark. I can't see a fucking thing."

Clementine finally made it to the other side of the ski lodge, and looked back for a moment when she heard Carlos crying out in pain as Carver continued to torture him more. She quickly ran over towards Kenny, who stood up for a moment to greet her. "You alright?"

"Where's Luke?" Clementine inquired, noticing he was not here or anywhere to be seen.

"Hell, I don't know." Kenny admitted, getting back into his sniping position. "He was wining about something or other, so I told him to take a hike."

The two looked back over into the ski lodge when Carlos' screaming had stopped. Did Carver finally put him out of his misery? Inside, Rebecca and Alvin had finally surrounded themselves to Carver, unable to be responsible for Carlos's torture any longer.

"Bill, stop!" Rebecca pleaded, standing up so he could see her.

"Ah. " Carver grinned, shoving Carlos down as his daughter cried out in sadness. He walked over to Rebecca after she, Alvin, and Sam had made their way downstairs and over to them, and raised a smile as he placed his hand to the side of her face. "You alright?"

"Fuck you, Bill." Rebecca swore.

"You don't want to do this." Walter begged. "Please, let those people go."

"Just, shut up." Bonnie ordered as she made her way over to Carlos and tied his hands behind his back and forced him down onto his knees with others.

Carver looked back down where he saw Sam barking towards in anger. He merely frowned as he kicked Sam in the face when he got close, knocking him back. He marched back over to the dog and kicked him over, knocking him unconscious.

"Sam!" Clementine whispered, panicking for the fear of her dog.

"I ain't wasting a bullet on a dog." Carver admitting, kicking Sam over yet again as he marched back over to the others. "Everything under control?" he asked Bonnie. "Let's just get our people home, alright?"

"Looks like they got everyone. Who are these guys? Can we take them?" Kenny inquired, leaning down while closing one of his eyes to get a better aim. He whispered as he aimed at Johnny in his sights. "I've got a pretty clear shot on the one...Just a little bit to the left, you son of a bitch. That's right."

"I don't know. Maybe we should find Luke." Clementine suggested, drying a tear from her eye as the sight of Sam being beaten like that hurt her.

Kenny did not take her idea into thought and aimed his rifle towards the window. He pulled the trigger without hesitation of killing a stranger, and he managed to hit Johnny directly in his face. "Got him." he smiled, praising himself as Clementine merely gasped.

"Kenny!" Sarita gasped.

"Don't move!" Bonnie ordered as she and Troy took cover behind wooden support beams while carefully looking towards the window, but found they could not see Johnny's assassin anywhere. "I can't see him."

"Watch them." Carver ordered while he frowned as he marched over towards the prisoners with his Python holstered. He picked up Walter, forcing him to stand up and placing his arm around his neck. He pushed Walter down onto his knees, aiming his gun near the back of his head.

Walter, knowing it was his time, looked towards a photo of him and Matthew together nearby. He leaned up slightly and talked a little faster than he would. "Matthew, I want you to know-"

Before he could finish, Carver had shot a bullet directly into the side of his head, killing him in exchange for Kenny killing one of his own men.

"WALER!" Matthew screamed, crying heavily out from his eyes after just witnessing his partner's death.

"No!" Carlos yelled as his daughter beside him cried heavily.

"Walt!" Kenny gasped, slightly regretting what he had just done. He aimed again at the ski lodge, trying to get a clean on shot on Carver as he knew he was the leader of this little group.

"Oh, my god." Clementine gasped.

"That's for our man." Carver explained, taking cover behind a wooden support beam with his python raised. "Now, I didn't want to do this, but you ain't leaving me much choice. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to march another one of your friends out here and I'm going to put a bullet in the back of their head. Or you can give up now. Your choice."

The only response Carver got was another shot by Kenny that hit the wooden support beam he was taking cover behind.

"Motherfucker!" Kenny growled, cocking his rifle back and firing another shot that hit the same support beam.

Carver merely flinched a little in response as he made his way over to the other prisoners, preparing to take one more of them hostage.

Clementine realized he was not going to be able to get another shot from his position, and she spotted another covering position he could use. "Kenny, over there!"

The two ran over to where Clementine was pointing and jumped into the small circle that was surrounded by a metal fence for cover.

"Hi, Alvin." Carver greeted, forcing Alvin to stand onto his feet as he leaded him over towards the window.

"You motherfucker!" Alvin groaned, unable to do anything as he was taken hostage.

"Alvin!" Carlos gasped, assuming that Carver was going to kill Alvin straight away so he could have Rebecca to himself.

"Bill, no!" Rebecca begged, attempting to stop him from using her husband as a hostage, but was held back by Troy. "Tell him to stop. Kenny, stop!"

Carver spoke to Alvin as he kept one hand on his shoulder while keeping his gun to the side of his face. He criticized him for once murdering a close friend of his. "Do you remember George, Alvin? You see, I do. I remember a guy that was your friend named George. I remember when you murdered him in cold blood. And why? Because you didn't like me? You could have lodged a complaint. You could have-You could have been civil."

"Alvin!" Clementine gasped, seeing Carver force Alvin over towards the window where Johnny had been shot; unaware that Kenny had changed position.

"Damn. It's a tough shot." Kenny admitted, trying to get a good aim on him without hitting Alvin. He asked Clementine for advice since she was quite smart in situations like this. "What do you think?...CLEM? I got a shot!"

"Bill, NO! We'll do whatever you want!" Rebecca panicked, not wanting her husband to die.

"I love you, Bec." Alvin said, turning his head around to see his wife one last time.

"BILL! PLEASE!" Rebecca begged.

Clementine did not want anyone else to die and grabbed Kenny's rifle and pulled out away from the window

Kenny watched with an annoyed face as he had almost pulled the trigger when she moved the gun. "The hell are you doing?!"

"He'll kill him!" Clementine explained like it was obvious to why she had just done that.

"We can't just give up!" Kenny declined, refusing to go out without a fight.

"Kenny. He'll just keep doing this. Think about Sarita." Clementine replied, trying to show a serious face to he would not make any more mistakes.

Kenny's expression changed into a sad one as the thought of losing Sarita raced around his mind. He already lost Katjaa and Duck, and losing someone else he failed to protect may just do him in. "We're coming out!" he declared, tossing his rifle aside.

The two surrounded and walked towards the ski lodge entrance where Bonnie was waiting for them. She kicked the door opened and aimed her AK-47 at them. "Let's go."

Clementine and Kenny were tied up and forced down onto their knees with the rest of the group. Now that they were captured, Carver was still smart enough to notice someone was missing.

"Where's Luke?" Carver inquired, pacing up and down with his hands placed to his hips. He did not get an answer from anyone, and assumed he had run away. "Finally cut and run, huh? Why am I not surprised? I warned you. I wanted you not to follow him. And look where he has led you. ..But you're safe now. We're going home. As a family." he began walked towards Rebecca while speaking. "

Carver walked over to the exit of the ski lodge while the remaining survivors gazed upon. He ordered his people to take them with him, including Sam. "Alright. Round them up. Get the dog, too. We're heading back to camp."

Each of the prisoners were forced onto their feet, one-by-one. Clementine was the last one to still be there. She watched in sadness for a moment before Bonnie forced her onto her feet, placing her with the others as they began escort everyone back to their camp. And it sure was going to be a long way back.

* * *

**Well, everyone I hope you enjoy this mid-story final. "The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam" will be continued as soon as Episode 3 has been released and once I play through it. In case you did not notice, I combined the dialogue from both endings where you surrender to Carver and go to find Kenny.**

**Well, I hope you all enjoyed it, and stay tuned for chapter 9.**


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